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All Blacks Player Ratings vs Argentina

By Sam Warlow
Shannon Frizell stood out for the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images

The All Blacks have continued their winning ways with a 46-24 victory over Argentina in Nelson. Here’s how they fared individually.

  1. Karl Tu’inukuafe – 6.5 
    Dominated at scrum time early, made a rare line break. Performance marred by a few missed tackles.
  2. Codie Taylor – 7
    Great hands and link play shown throughout. Big pass to set up Milner-Skudder try. Mostly tidy at lineout time, had a couple of misses.
  3. Owen Franks – 6.5
    Good hands, had a few cracks at the line. Made his tackles. Typically strong scrum performance.

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  4. Brodie Retallick – N/A, replaced early by Sam Whitelock – 7
    Came on earlier than expected and made an impact. Won a pair of turnovers and made 13 tackles in a big shift.
  5. Scott Barrett – 6.5
    Often in the right place at the right time. Quick hands to put Frizell into a hole. Came up with the ball close to his own tryline. Tidy performance, if quiet.

  6. Shannon Frizell – 9
    After being penalised early, Frizell came right and was everywhere. Continuously broke the line, won a couple of penalties, helped set up a try with inside ball to Goodhue. Made more tackles than anyone on the park and didn’t miss. Bagged a try to cap a great performance in front of his home crowd.

  7. Ardie Savea – 7.5
    More influence in the second period. Won a crucial penalty on his own try line and had a handful of powerful carries. Made 15 tackles and won a pair of turnovers.

  8. Kieran Read – 6.5
    A quiet shift from Read, outshone by his back row partners. Picked up a captain’s knock and made his tackles.

  9. TJ Perenara – 8.5
    Stepped up in a rare start at No. 9. Bagged a pair of tries, one from in close and another as a result of great support lines. Solid in defence and made a try saving tackle in the first half.

  10. Richie Mo’unga – 6.5
    Started rough after missing touch a couple of times. Spilled some ball, missed a couple of tackles but generally distributed and kicked well off the tee.

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  11. Waisake Naholo – 6.5
    Made a couple of slicing runs when opportunities presented themselves – though said opportunities were few and far between. Won a penalty over the ball in another typical Naholo performance.

  12. Ngani Laumape – N/A, replaced early by Anton Lienert-Brown – 8
    Constantly threatened the line, beat three defenders to make the break for Perenara’s second try. Solid defensively in the midfield. Another great performance from the versatile centre after entering earlier than expected.

  13. Jack Goodhue – 8
    Strong with ball in hand and as a distributor. Finished a well-worked try as time expired. Continues to build on his impressive young All Black career.

  14. Nehe Milner-Skudder – 6
    Caught out by Ramiro Moyano early but otherwise tidy defensively, finished off a try and found space in his return.

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  15. Ben Smith – 7.5
    Shook off early injury scare after HIA. Exploited mismatch and skinned Agustin Creevy to set up Read try. Another solid performance, though not spectacular.

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Nickers 7 hours ago
All Blacks sabbaticals ‘damage Super Rugby Pacific when it is fighting for survival’

Sabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.

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