Jason Holland reflects on the All Blacks' aerial problems

Argentina have secured a historic victory over the All Blacks in Buenos Aires, winning their first ever game at home against New Zealand.

Felipe Contepomi’s side disrupted the All Blacks ball by contesting effectively in the air and putting pressure on the All Blacks’ back three.

Three yellow cards hurt Scott Robertson’s All Blacks, as ultimately they struggled to wrestle back momentum in the second half in Buenos Aires.

All Blacks assistant coach Jason Holland joined Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB’s Weekend Sport, where he reflected on what was a tough, disappointing Test match.

“Look, there’s lots of things front of mind, obviously, just really disappointed in our performance, Argentinians played some good footy, but we’re our own worst enemies in a lot of areas tonight, and it cost us.

“There was a lot of areas where we didn’t perform where we wanted to, the Argentinians kicked really well and won the air most times, which is a massive part of the game these days.

“Even like all of our attack and our strike was, some of our line out stuff was off around our execution, which meant we couldn’t build pressure,” Holland told Pine.

When asked about the aerial battle against Argentina, Holland admits they’ve been working hard in training to perfect it, but he feels like the Argentina wingers got the better of them on Sunday morning.

“We’ve been working pretty hard in the air, it’s really important to get up and win the collision in the air these days, as the rules have changed and you can’t give any protection to the catcher, it’s the contest.

“So you’ve got to be strong in the air. You’ve got to get higher and be stronger than the opposition and the Argentinian wingers were outstanding tonight and won all those contests.

“So it’s a must going forward, that we must be stronger in the air, we must win the possession from from those kicks.”

Some people have questioned the All Blacks back three after the aerial issues the All Blacks have been having, but Holland explains that it’s also up to the other players around them to sort it out.

“I think you’ll find a lot of the time these days in the game, it’s not necessarily your wingers at times either, that are under those high balls with ten’s and fifteens in the backfield.

“So it’s probably more than just the back three, it’s specifically ten’s and fifteen’s a lot of the time when the Argentinians were kicking to us tonight.

“So if you want to be in the backfield, then we have to be able to win those collisions, it’s as simple as that,” Holland said.

The former Hurricanes head coach and current attack coach for the All Blacks believes the ill-discipline is a concerning part of the game, and the players know they can’t win games having three yellow cards.

“Yeah, hugely concerning, like our discipline needs to be better when we’re under pressure and a lot of the other things I’ve talked around leads to that.

“As I said tonight, Nick Berry rewards the team with the ball and because of all those other things that we’ve just talked around, around our inaccuracies, that means we spend a lot of time without it, and that’s what happens in the game these days.

“So we’re not gonna win two games against good opposition with two yellow cards and as you say, five over the season.”