All Blacks down Pumas in Rugby Championship Opener

The World Champion All Blacks started their Rugby Championship title defense well by defeating Argentina 39-18 in Christhurch on Friday evening local time. The performance made up for last week’s below-par showing against Samoa in Apia while for Argentina it was a reminder of the need to enter with the right tactics are execution.

Similar to previous test matches in New Zealand Los Pumas were unable to compete evenly against the Rugby World Cup 2011 winners and committed errors which directly led to All Black tries. In total the home side outscored the South Americans by five tries to two by scoring two in the opening half and three in the second.

Early on the teams were relatively evenly matched. The opening minutes saw efforts to run from both teams with referee Craig Joubert penalizing both teams within kickable range. Dan Carter and Nicolás Sánchez exchanged penalties to make it 3-3 after eleven minutes.

This was as close as Argentina would get to New Zealand though as the home side went ahead with a second Carter penalty, this time from long range before camping in the Pumas 22 and coming close to scoring tries through the Ulster bound winger Charles Piutau and the Racing 92 bound Carter. The resulting penalty saw Carter kicking for the corner and captain Richie McCaw scoring from a set-move at the resulting lineout.

Carter’s conversion attempt drifted wide but the ease of the try had New Zealand on top. The South Americans had been guilty of misreading the play with the forwards driving in on the jumper upon him landing. This opened space with McCaw assisted by three other forwards able to dive over against scrumhalf Tomás Cubelli and winger Santiago Cordero.

New Zealand looked to continue the pressure straight away and the home side indeed controlled territory and possession throughout the resulting fifteen minutes. With no ball Argentina’s defence was put to the test with inside centre Jerónimo De la Fuente proving to be a sound defender in stopping centres Sonny-Bill Williams and Ma’a Nonu on numerous occasions.

When Argentina had an opportunity in the 33rd minute outside centre Marcelo Bosch went for goal. His attempt sailed wide to the right but Sánchez made amends shortly thereafter to make it an 11-6 game. Carter looked to cancel out the try three minutes later but his kick from wide on the left was unsuccessful. It mattered not as New Zealand remained deep in Argentine territory with Nonu getting past Horacio Agulla to score. Carter’s conversion ended the half.

A missed Carter penalty attempt came in the oening minute of the second half but, like in the first, it was followed by an All Black time. The try was again scored by attacking towards the left wing with Piutau this time finishing off the play. The difficult conversion was on target making it 25-6 after it had been 11-6 just minutes earlier in game time.

Argentina appeared disheartened and fell into the trap of running the ball out from deep inside their own 22. The result was that Kieran Read was able to pinch a try from the hands of Agulla and go over untouched. Captain Agustín Creevy seeked to calm his players and get some control over the game.

From the kick-off Argentina showed improvement and was able to string phases together. The result was pressure on the home side who gave away a number of penalties for not releasing and holding players on the ground. Joubert opted against yellow carding any player nor did he talk to McCaw about discipline.

Creevy, though, remainded calm and asked Sánchez to kick for the corner twice. From similar lineouts the Argentine forward pack was able to regather and advance from a rolling maul with Creevy scoring a double. Sánchez added one of the two attempted conversions to make it a 32-18 game and give the home side a minor scare.

In looking to not burn-out his players Daniel Hourcade took Creevy over straight away after scoring his second try. His replacement. Julián Montoya made his Rugby Championship debut joining all of De la Fuente, Santiago Cordero, Facundo Isa and Guido Petti in doing so.

With Creevy gone the scrum suffered somewhat but it had not ben a good match all around in this department for Argentina. The final try of the game came from Montoya’s opposite, Codie Taylor who scored from an Argentine scrum error five metres out from the try line.

Not only did errors impact on Argentina being outscored but so did the superior work of the home side. In the first half alone New Zealand completed 13 offloads, 13 more than Argentina. Such a statistic underlines the difference of where the teams were on the night. Creevy made no excuses post match in saying “we are not so happy with our performance. We are going to play with the All Blacks in the World Cup so we need to improve a lot to face them there.”

Scorers

New Zealand:
Tries: McCaw, Nonu, Piutau, Read, Taylor
Conversions: Carter 4
Penalties: Carter 2

Argentina:
Tries: Creevy 2
Conversions Sanchez
Penalties Sanchez 2

New Zealand
15 Israel Dagg, 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Ma’a Nonu, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Charles Piutau, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Richie McCaw (Captain), 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Brodie Retallick, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.

16 Codie Taylor, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Nepo Laulala, 19 Jeremy Thrush, 20 Liam Messam, 21 Andy Ellis, 22 Colin Slade, 23 Ryan Crotty.

Argentina
15 Joaquin Tuculet, 14 Horacio Agulla, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Jeronimo De la Fuente, 11 Santiago Cordero, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, 6 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 5 Guido Petti, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Ramiro Herrera, 2 Agustin Creevy (Captain), 1 Marcos Ayerza

16 Julian Montoya, 17 Lucas Noguera Paz, 18 Nahuel Chaparro Tetaz, 19 Benjamin Macome, 20 Javier Ortega Desio, 21 Martin Landajo, 22 Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 23 Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino.