New Zealand’s victory over South Africa in Round 2 proved to be a false dawn for the Ian Foster renaissance as his side were outclassed by the Argentines last weekend. The All Blacks now need a massive performance against a fired-up Los Pumas outfit to keep their Rugby Championship hopes alive.
The Rugby Championship is wide open once again with Australia and Argentina’s victories last weekend seeing them level on points at the top of the standings with New Zealand five points adrift and South Africa a further point back.
Should New Zealand beat Argentina this weekend and South Africa do the same against Australia, we could well have all teams level on points headed into the final two rounds of the competition.
New Zealand v Argentina
Saturday 3 September
FMG Stadium Waikato
09:05
To Win Match
New Zealand 2/13 | Draw 30/1 | Argentina 17/4
Handicap
New Zealand (-13.5) 9/10 | Argentina (+13.5) 9/10
An abysmal collective work rate and inaccuracy were once again the themes of the day for the All Blacks as they failed to capitalise on points-scoring opportunities and were outworked by the South Americans.
The most worrying aspect of that 18-25 defeat is that it came with Richie Mo’unga playing at fly-half. The return of the Crusaders pivot to the starting line-up for the second Test against South Africa reaped dividends as he was instrumental in that 23-35 victory.
It seems his return as orchestrator only papered over the cracks rather than filling the gaping holes that have been left in the midfield due to continuous rotation at 12.
We've got a game on our hands 👀
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) August 27, 2022
Argentina lead the All Blacks 19-18 after 50 minutes..
📺 Stream #NZLvARG live: https://t.co/0BMWdeEYT3 pic.twitter.com/2sTnBdeqF7
Another positional concern for the All Blacks has got to be on the side of the scrum with Sam Cane unable to offer anything near what he did against South Africa in that second Test. The veteran Chiefs man was outplayed by the Argentine loosies and Foster really ought to be looking at giving Dalton Papalii a run at this point.
While the All Blacks were pretty poor, credit must go to Argentina who were absolutely incredible this past weekend. I had my doubts about them during the build-up to the Rugby Championship but they have proved me wrong thus far with Michael Chieka’s side having come on in leaps and bounds since their poor showings against an understrength Scotland side in July.
Verdict: Argentina (+13.5) 9/10
While I reckon the All Blacks will take this one, it should still be a narrow run thing. As such, I’m all over a still rather generous handicap.
Teams
New Zealand
15 Jordie Barrett, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Rieko Ioane, 12 David Havili, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Sam Cane (c), 6 Shannon Frizell, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Sam Whitelock, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 1 Ethan de Groot
Substitutes: 16 Dane Coles, 17 George Bower, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Brodie Retallick, 20 Dalton Papali’i, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Beauden Barrett, Quinn Tupaea
Argentina
15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Emiliano Boffelli, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Matias Orlando, 11 Santiago Cordero, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Pablo Matera, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Santiago Grondona, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Guido Petti, 3 Joel Sclavi, 2 Julian Montoya (c), 1 Thomas Gallo
Substitutes: 16 Santiago Socino, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Matias Alemanno, 20 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 23 Lucio Cinto.
