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Argentina's win a carbon copy of their last win over the All Blacks

By Ben Smith
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND - AUGUST 27: Marcos Kremer of Argentina and Tomas Lavinini of Argentina celebrate during The Rugby Championship match between the New Zealand All Blacks and Argentina Pumas at Orangetheory Stadium on August 27, 2022 in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

Argentina’s second ever victory over the All Blacks, and first over New Zealand on home soil, was essentially a carbon copy of their 2020 win.

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In that 25-15 win at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney, flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez scored an opportunist try and kicked six penalties and one conversion.

On a chilly night in Christchurch, the Pumas grabbed their one try off a botched kick receipt from the restart through blindside Juan Martin Gonzalez and winger Emiliano Boffelli kicked six penalties and one conversion.

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And again, it was on defence where they really put the All Blacks under pressure.

Los Pumas were hellbent on crushing the All Blacks on the ground, completing a mammoth number of tackles to suffocate the home side.

Their 192 tackles from 200 attempts was more than double that of the All Blacks, who were asked to complete 92 and made 85.

Most impressive from Argentina was their discipline in executing their defensive scheme, making the correct reads before swallowing the ball carriers.

The patient but brutal defence caused headaches at the breakdown and in contact all night long.

They allowed the All Blacks to move the ball behind the gain line while maintaining their own line integrity.

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The All Black pods were manhandled in close quarters and when they went wide the Pumas would watch each pass go by with a keen eye before striking at the man tasked with trying to take them on.

There was simply nowhere for the ball to go once the Pumas had their grips on the carrier, stifling the offload game.

The All Blacks had just five offloads over the entire 80 minutes as the size and strength of Tomas Lavanini, Marcos Kremer, and Pablo Matera swallowed them up.

Kremer was once again a thorn in the All Blacks side, showing immense strength to drag runners where he wanted them which created pedestrian rucks for Aaron Smith.

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His match high 24 tackles was reminiscent of his performance in Sydney two years ago with 28.

It was boa constrictor-level restriction to choke off any means of promoting the ball, which kept the All Blacks opportunities to a minimum.

While the penalties flowed they weren’t for chaotic ill-discipline that has plagued the Pumas in the past.

Lock Tomas Lavanini, renown as a walking card, gave away just one indiscretion while coming up with a turnover and 12 tackles.

Pablo Matera added two turnovers much like his day out during the first win over the All Blacks when he had three.

There were just two clean breaks the entire game for the home side.

The first was a rare mistake as Boffelli was caught pushing out and centre Rieko Ioane played a well-timed short ball to Jordie Barrett who attacked the inside shoulder of the Argentinian wing.

That edge wasn’t tested enough by the All Blacks who continued to carry into the teeth of a strong Pumas pack too often.

When the pods started to interlink with passing, it did make inroads and George Bower made a half-break, but the Pumas quickly gained back ascendency and forced a turnover.

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The All Blacks had flashes of counter-attack on kick returns but the Pumas did not hand them turnover opportunities with smart game management and execution by flyhalf Santiago Carreras.

The phase play was all too predictable by Foster’s side. They played a narrow game, unlike the way they stretched the Springboks at Ellis Park, and paid the price for it.

For the majority of the time the pod system is continuing to look outdated and ineffective and needs to be rethought and perhaps scrapped.

It isn’t creating quick ball the way the All Blacks want and when met with a ferocious pack like Argentina, often comes off second best.

It is very easy to handle carries of the ruck for a pack with monstrous specimens like Los Pumas.

The All Blacks do not play most phases off 10 anymore like the way they did with Dan Carter, as is the way with most sides these days.

But if they were to revive old patterns that played a bit deeper and through the hands of the first five, increased the passes per phase and found the loosies out wide more frequently, what would happen to these beefed up front lines?

Playing deep is possible as long as the runners bring pace onto the ball and maintain a forward momentum, which has been absent until recently by the All Blacks.

Static ball deep is a disaster, but an attack that engages a line before playing deep will start to cause a staggering press.

In any case, the one-out runners off 9 game has become so stale it fails to offer much for a defence to think about, particularly when the carry and clean is not your strength.

Argentina absorbed everything that the All Blacks had planned to throw at them on the night and excellent goal kicking got them home.

They will do it again in seven days time if the All Blacks rock up with the same plans.

If they fail to adjust, they could lose another home series and their season would really be in tatters.

Los Pumas have found a formula that works and it produced for the second time in nearly the exact same fashion as it did two years ago.

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Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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j
john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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A
Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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