Felipe Contepomi’s Argentina handed Scott Robertson his first loss as All Blacks coach as they mounted an exceptional comeback to win 38 – 30 in Wellington.
Despite trailing at half-time, Los Pumas showed incredible strength of character to remain in the fight before ultimately reeling in and dispatching their hosts.
Central to this comeback was the impact of their bench and in particular their most capped player 39-year-old Agustín Creevy who scored the crucial go ahead try with ten minutes to play.
Sealing the deal with a late penalty, flyhalf Santiago Carreras landed his fourth penalty of the day in what was a truly world class performance from the Gloucester star.
Speaking post match, Ardie Savea acknowledged that this loss would sting his team as they look to rebuild ahead of next week’s clash with the same opposition at Eden Park.
Here are three key takeaways from Argentina’s superb win in Wellington.
Dazzling all court Pumas
Whether the All Blacks underestimated Argentina or simply weren’t up to the task of their visitors, Los Pumas shredded the All Blacks defence. Most notable was Argentina’s ability to expose the Kiwi’s kick chase as they time and again found gaps in the defence. Out wide the Kiwis struggled to win their one-on-one match-ups as Juan Cruz Mallia, Matias Moroni and Mateo Carreras continually got around the outside. This wide game was built-off Los Pumas ability to generate go forward ball in the close channels with centre Santiago Chocobares and captain Pablo Matera doing the hard yards.
Uncharacteristic All Blacks
Can anyone else remember when it last took over an hour for the first scrum in a test match to happen? Despite being played at a breakneck speed, both sides were exceptional in their handling. Completing 193 passes, the All Blacks fizzled but ultimately failed to pop as they scored ‘just’ three tries despite holding the edge in possession and making six line breaks. On the flip-side, Argentina struck when given half a chance both from the boot of Carreras and with four key tries. This felt like a role reversal of previous matches between the two sides with the All Blacks historically being the team to strike when given half a chance.
All Blacks exposed
Despite earning plenty of plaudits over the past twelve months, the All Blacks scrum had no answers for Los Pumas. Whilst it may have taken over an hour for the first scrum to arrive, Argentina took full advantage of all five in the final twenty minutes. Outsmarting their usually coy hosts, Argentina won a crucial penalty late on when Flethcer Newell was caught out by Mayco Vivas. Minutes earlier and Augustin Creevy’s try came on the heels of a powerful shove by the pack and before that Los Pumas mauled the best part of twenty meters to get up to the All Blacks line. Interestingly these scrum issues stand in stark contrast to the All Blacks series win over England and will be something the Springboks will no doubt have noted ahead of their two test series. Finally as touched upon above, the All Blacks kick chase left plenty of space for Argentina to expose on the counter attack. Whether this was on a lack of communication due to a new look backline most notably without Reiko Ioane at 13 or simply a lack of work rate to hold the line, it will be interesting to see how Robertson and his coaching staff address it this week.
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