Argentina’s ambition to start the new Rugby Championship season with a first-ever home win over the All Blacks was shattered in Cordoba as the six-try visitors bagged a deserved 41-24 round one win.
The hosts had hoped to overcome the disjointedness of their recent series loss to England, but the plethora of errors that cost them in that 0-2 loss weren’t eradicated.
They fought back admirably in the second half to cut a 10-31 deficit to seven points, but they could have no complaints about their eventual 17-point demise confirmed by a pair of late maul tries from Samisoni Taukei’aho.
Fresh from a 3-0 series win over France, Scott Robertson’s New Zealand made the more composed start and were ahead just four minutes in, Beauden Barrett dusting himself down following an illegal off-the-ball barge from Santiago Chocobares to land his kick from the 10-metre line.
This lead would have been fleeting had a penalty in reply from Tomas Albornoz, following a Sevu Reece not rolling offence at the breakdown, not cannoned down off an upright, and it was costly for Argentina as they conceded the opening try on nine minutes.
A lineout maul was the initial ploy that shortened the defence and when the time came to pull the trigger and exploit the resulting space, the pass from Will Jordan to the scoring Reece was exquisite.
To rub salt in the wound, New Zealand’s conversion from Barrett went over following a favourable collision off an upright and that left them 10-0 up and looking comfortable.
If there was heart for Argentina to take from this early malaise, it was how Australia struck with 38 unanswered points earlier in the day in Johannesburg to beat South Africa after conceding 22 points in the opening 18 minutes.
Striking back, the Pumas were finally on the board on 16 minutes, a penalty advantage awarded as Marcos Kremer carried near the posts led to movement out wide that ended in Rodrigo Isgro getting in at the corner for the try that Albornoz converted to cut the gap to three points.
Just 18 seconds after Barrett launched his restart kick, though, Mayco Vivas foolishly stuck an illegal hand out at a breakdown and was yellow-carded after play was halted. Some tasty tackles followed, including Pablo Matera’s ball-dislodging effort on Rieko Ioane, while Albornoz also looked the part with his tidying-up work.
This injection of added energy was enough for the hosts to see out the initial part of the 10 minutes a man down without conceding points, but they were majestically cut open in the 24th minute by an electric break from Jordan.
In a sublime piece of attack play, the hot-stepping full-back burst through the cover from around halfway and he then gave the supporting Cortez Ratima the pass that allowed the scrum-half to sprint in under the posts for the try that Barrett added to off the tee for a 17-7 advantage.
After it became a 15 versus 15 contest again, Argentina got three points back through Albornoz after Bautista Delguy was tackled without the ball by Ioane.
However, their pride was then hurt by the scrum collapse penalty near halfway that invited the All Blacks to build inside the opposition’s 22 and it led to the 37th minute maul try from Ardie Savea that Barrett added to for the 24-10 lead.
They were celebrating again five minutes later when another scrum penalty around halfway gave them territory. A lengthy move that included some neat footwork from Ratima followed before quick hands put Reece in at the corner on 43 minutes, and Barrett’s kick took them into the interval 31-10 ahead.
The margin was really positive for the All Blacks as they had been guilty of some clunkiness, but their ability to profit from opposition mistakes in a half where Argentina conceded nine penalties to four and gave up eight turnovers to five was supreme.
Behind by 21 points, the onus was very much on the Pumas to up the ante on the resumption and a converted solo effort on 51 minutes from the waltzing Albornoz, who struck from scrum ball after the All Blacks had just made some changes, made things interesting for the next while.
A scrum penalty win further jazzed up the crowd, and the infringement that then stopped Matera driving at the line led to Billy Proctor’s 59th-minute sin-binning. Their decision to opt for a five-metre scrum, though, failed to bring reward as Gonzalo Garcia messed up, but follow-up All Blacks infringements resulted in Joaquin Oviedo diving in on 64 minutes.
Albornoz added the conversion to shave the margin to seven points, and the match now had a very different complexion at 24-31 compared to 10-31 at the break. New Zealand needed respite, and they got it when a series of penalties gave them a platform out of touch five metres out.
What followed was clinical, replacement hooker Taukei’aho darting over from a maul to register the unconverted 69th-minute try.
Scoring in the final seconds of Proctor’s temporary absence was essentially the winning of the game, rapidly dousing the flames of the Puma fightback, and Taukei’aho was to strike again with another maul finish five minutes later.
There was a 77th-minute yellow card for Anton Lienert-Brown following his head contact with Chocobares, but that second sin binning wasn’t going to spoil the New Zealand party. They will now go to Buenos Aires confident of securing a repeat win next weekend in round two.
The teams
Argentina: 15 Juan Cruz Mallía, 14 Rodrigo Isgró, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Bautista Delguy, 10 Tomás Albornoz, 9 Gonzalo García, 8 Joaquín Oviedo, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 4 Franco Molina, 3 Pedro Delgado, 2 Julián Montoya (c), 1 Mayco Vivas
Replacements: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Guido Petti, 20 Juan Martín González, 21 Simón Benítez Cruz, 22 Santiago Carreras, 23 Justo Piccardo
All Blacks: 15 Will Jordan, 14 Sevu Reece, 13 Billy Proctor, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Cortez Ratima, 8 Ardie Savea, 7 Du’Plessis Kirifi, 6 Tupou Vaa’i, 5 Fabian Holland, 4 Scott Barrett (c), 3 Fletcher Newell, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot
Replacements: 16 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17 Ollie Norris, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19 Patrick Tuipulotu, 20 Samipeni Finau, 21 Finlay Christie, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Damian McKenzie
Referee: Pierre Brousset (FFR)