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Pablo Matera captained Felipe Contepomi’s Pumas to a 38-30 victory in Wellington on Saturday. Argentina’s statement win over New Zealand will be felt for a long time to come. It was the third ever win by the South Americans against the three-time world champions and saw the South Americans putting a record 38 points on the board against the All Blacks in New Zealand.
The eye-opening win was built on confidence, belief, patience and winning the collisions. Los Pumas were 10-0 down early but went about their work to fight back and, tackle by tackle, get on top of the All Blacks.
It was also a very different win to Argentina’s previous two victories over the All Blacks. Los Pumas scored one try in the 25-15 win in 2020 and one again in the 25-18 win in 2022. In contrast, Contepomi’s team scored four tries in Wellington.
Argentina did more with the ball. Los Pumas ran a total of 395 meters compared to 295 by the All Blacks. This worked well together with the defense which saw a total of 157 Pumas tackles compared to 137 by New Zealand.
All Black Ethan Blackadder had the highest tackle count with 20. However, the next four best were all Pumas. Marcos Kremer completed 18 tackles, Thomas Gallo and Pedro Rubiolo 17 each and Santiago Chocobares 16.
Lineouts were relatively even; however, Argentina won all four scrums in the match. Argentina had an edge at the breakdown with 7 turnovers won compared to 5 by New Zealand.
Sam Darry, Anton Lienert-Brown and Mark Tele’a each scored for New Zealand. Darry scored first. His try came from deep inside All Blacks’ territory. Fortune favored the brave as a kick through bounced into New Zealand hands before a second kick favored Darry rather than Matías Moroni.
Damian McKenzie made no mistake with the conversion and, having also landed a penalty, gave New Zealand a 10-0 lead within 15 minutes of play. Argentina hit-back on 23 minutes. Matera timed a pass for the rampaging Santiago Chocobares to make a break and find Lucio Cinti who got past two defenders to score.
Santiago Carreras missed the conversion but would not miss any other of his remaining kicks at goal. He and McKenzie exchanged penalties but New Zealand were now playing their best rugby of the match. Attacking All Blacks phases culminated with space for Lienert-Brown to slide in as Moroni was marking two men.
The back-and-forth resumed with Fijian Sevu Reece slapping back a ball only for Argentina to gather with Mateo Carreras side-stepping McKenzie to score. With the conversion it was a 20-15 half-time scoreline.
Beating the best involves intuition. Argentina showed this with their third try. From a five meter attacking lineout, the ball went to Franco Molina at the front rather than to the lifted player. Molina scored and, fellow Córdoba player, Santiago Carrera converted.
New Zealand responded through McKenzie who slotted his third, and final, penalty. Carreras kicked one of his own minutes later. Winger Mark Tele’a then took New Zealand to 30 points. The 52nd minute try was New Zealand’s final score of the match.
Contepomi’s replacements came on to have an impacted worthy of comparisons to the Springboks’ now famous bomb-squad. Replacement N8 Joaquín Oviedo went close from a scrum. Debutant Efraín Elías then off-loaded in a tackle to Agustín Creevy who scored.
Carreras’ conversion made it 35-30 with ten minutes remaining. Creevy won a turnover penalty on 77 minutes from which Carreras put Los Pumas 8 points clear. Argentina were now out of reach and saw out their first win over the All Blacks on New Zealand’s North Island.
The teams play again in seven days time. The rematch will be at Eden Park in Auckland, a venue which New Zealand has last beaten at in 1994. Could Argentina write further history by ending the streak?
| SCORING |
NEW ZEALAND (30)
Try (3) – S Darry (13′), A Lienert-Brown (34′), M Tele’a (52′)
Con (3) – D McKenzie 3/3 (14′, 35′, 53′)
Pen (4) – D McKenzie 3/4 (11′, 27′, 46′)
ARGENTINA (38)
Try (4) – L Cinti (23′), M Carreras (37′), F Molina (44′), A Creevy (69′)
Con (4) – S Carreras 3/4 (38′, 45′, 70′)
Pen (4) – S Carreras 4/4 (30′, 50′, 65′, 77′)
| LINEUPS |
NEW ZEALAND
1 Ethan De Groot, Codie Taylor, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 4 Tupou Vaa’i, 5 Sam Darry, 6 Ethan Blackadder, 7 Dalton Papali’i, 8 Ardie Savea (capt.), 9 TJ Perenara, 10 Damian McKenzie, 11 Mark Tele’a, 12 Jordie Barrett, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 14 Sevu Reece, 15 Beauden Barrett
Replacements: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Josh Lord, 20 Wallace Sititi, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Rieko Ioane, 23 Will Jordan
ARGENTINA
1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Ignacio Ruiz, 3 Eduardo Bello, 4 Franco Molina, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 6 Pablo Matera (capt.), 7 Marcos Kremer, 8 Juan Martín González, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 13 Lucio Cinti, 14 Matías Moroni, 15 Juan Cruz Mallía
Replacements: 16 Agustín Creevy, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Tomás Lavanini, 20 Efraín Elías, 21 Joaquín Oviedo, 22 Lautaro Bazán Vélez, 23 Tomás Albornoz
| MATCH HIGHLIGHTS |
| OFFICIALS |
Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant Referees: Nic Berry (Australia); Andrea Piardi (Italy)
TMO: Brett Cronan (Australia)
