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After 32 long years the All Blacks are back in Mendoza
As it happens all over the world, it is a huge event when the All Blacks are in town. So, when New Zealand and Argentina kick-off a new edition of The Rugby Championship, it will be in a new test venue for the visitors that is bracing for the black wave.
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Mendoza is known as the city of wine and sun, Malbec to be more precise, nestled on the foothills of the Andes in the background.
Drive nine hours to the west and after crossing one of the world’s biggest and highest mountain ranges, you will arrive on the same Pacific Ocean that Ian Foster’s side flew over to arrive on Sunday night in Mendoza.
Contrary to previous trips to Argentina, the All Blacks will have less than a week in town, which will make adjusting to jet-lag a bit harder. In a long year, a yawn here and a yawn there might be better than being away for an extra couple of days.
Ready to attack is a Puma side that has only formally got together a few days ago. Their first official training session will be in Mendoza on Monday, where there is a huge buzz for Saturday’s game.
A regular test venue since the start of the Rugby Championship in 2012, it was here where Argentina played their first home game that year against the Springboks. It will be the first time the All Blacks play an international in the country outside of bustling Buenos Aires, but their third visit here after games against Cuyo in 1976 and 1991.
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COVID-19 stopped the world in its tracks in 2020 and Argentina had one of the strictest and longest quarantine – house prison kind of… Mendoza missed on having the All Blacks that year. Three years later, it has finally happened.
The hunger to see Los Pumas in the country, let alone Mendoza, is huge. But having the All Blacks takes it to a totally new level.
The Estadio Malvinas Argentinas was built for the 1978 FIFA World Cup and has only had facelifts since. It still holds up and with the 42,500 seats already sold-out, there are a lot of unhappy fans that were hoping that tickets would be easily found.
It is a big rugby city, yet the stadium has never been fully complete for rugby.
“I’ve heard of a lot of rugby people that had been accustomed to getting their hands on tickets through clubs, friends, even the local government, that did not buy when they went to sale and now are desperate,” tells me a Mendoza friend.
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“There is certainly a different vibe in the city. Definitely.”
Wallabies and Springboks have been in Mendoza before; but the All Blacks elevate this demand.
Seeing what Los Pumas can bring to the equation is also important for local fans.
With scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou in line for his fiftieth test at home, the very efficient Juan González playing his first test in front of family and friends and the possible test debut for sevens star Rodrigo Isgro, local fans have a lot to cheer for.
Mendoza will always be the land that brought us Federico Méndez, until 2020 the only Argentine to beat the All Blacks. That is a good quiz question. When and with what team?
The land of Malbec also captured now Puma coach Michael Cheika in 2018 ranting and raving in the changing room during the halftime break of a game the Wallabies were losing 31-7. He did get the message through to his team eventually turning around the game for an unforgettable 45-34 win.
He jumped onto the Pumas staff in 2020 and since, Argentina has beaten the All Blacks twice – in Sydney 2020 and Christchurch last year. Last year was his first as head coach and whilst the team had some unforgettable moments – beating Scotland in a three-game series at home, beating the All Blacks in their own den and a second-ever win at Twickenham – it kind of derailed in the last two games in November against Wales and Scotland.
This being a World Cup year, only a tad over two months away, the goal is in France and these early games, five – All Blacks, Wallabies, two against the Springboks and a final run-out with Spain – are all stepping-stones towards the first game in Marseille, September 9.
It is game-by-game. Winning is important, but as Cheika has said, it is about what you take away from each game, each training session. Basically, give the short time, every moment together as a squad.
Mendoza will give a clear idea of where this year is heading to.
Fitness could be an issue. It is unclear who is match fit and these next few weeks will give clear indicators of who are the thirty-three that will make it to Rugby World Cup. More clues will be available when the match squad is announced on Thursday.
As ridiculous as it sounds, the All Blacks are a stepping-stone. As Los Pumas are to them.
We will all be the wiser after the first round of another exciting Rugby Championship
By the way, if you were still wondering, Méndez played for the World XV in the first Centenary test in 1992.
Comments on RugbyPass
‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
18 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
11 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
11 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to comments