{"id":74623,"date":"2025-08-18T03:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T03:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/74623\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T03:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T03:48:08","slug":"new-zealand-hold-off-argentina-fightback-to-return-to-top-of-world-rugby-rankings-rugby-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/74623\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand hold off Argentina fightback to return to top of world rugby rankings | Rugby Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand\u2019s Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho scored two late tries to seal a 41-24 Rugby Championship<\/a> win over Argentina and return the All Blacks to the top of the world rankings on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Ahead 31-10 at the interval, New Zealand held off a second-half fightback from the Pumas in C\u00f3rdoba and ultimately emerged victors by scoring six tries to three.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks clinched the world No 1 ranking for the first time since 2021, leapfrogging world champions South Africa, who were stunned 38-22 by Australia<\/a> in Johannesburg in the tournament opener.<\/p>\n

Winger Sevu Reece also scored a double for the visitors while fly-half Beauden Barrett kicked 11 points and was a controlling figure with his tactical kicking.<\/p>\n

Barrett\u2019s opposite Tomas Albornoz scored 14 points, including a try, but the Pumas were unable to end their winless record on home soil against New Zealand, which stretched to 15 matches.<\/p>\n

The result continues an unbeaten start to the year for the All Blacks, who swept France 3-0 in their June home series.<\/p>\n

All Blacks captain Scott Barrett said he was pleased with the result but conceded his team had only played well in patches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about starting well and I think we did that. We finished the second half quite strong \u2013 it was a bit of a statement there,\u201d said Barrett, whose team fell away badly in the closing stages of several Rugby Championship matches last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the second half we were a little bit slow and probably a little bit of indiscipline fed their game, which was disappointing and allowed the crowd to get in behind them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey threw a lot of punches at us and I\u2019m pleased the guys who finished the game were able to win some arm wrestles, get some territory and most importantly come away with a good win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reece scored the opening try after an early Beauden Barrett penalty before Argentina responded, when pressure created an overlap for winger Rodrigo Isgro.<\/p>\n

Pumas prop Mayco Vivas was shown a yellow card for a professional foul and New Zealand capitalised on their one-man advantage.<\/p>\n

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Fullback Will Jordan sliced through on the halfway line and sent scrum-half Cortez Ratima clear for the best try of the match and a 17-7 lead.<\/p>\n

The visitors took control late in the first half through a try to back-rower Ardie Savea \u2013 arguably the game\u2019s best player \u2013 followed by Reece\u2019s second score.<\/p>\n

Albornoz kickstarted Argentina\u2019s second-half rearguard with a tackle-busting try.<\/p>\n

New Zealand lost centre Billy Proctor to a yellow card and the home side closed to within seven points through a try to back-rower Joaquin Oviedo.<\/p>\n

But All Blacks replacement hooker Taukei\u2019aho sucked the energy out of the crowd by barging across to score twice in the final 12 minutes.<\/p>\n

The teams meet again in Buenos Aires next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand\u2019s Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho scored two late tries to seal a 41-24 Rugby Championship win over Argentina and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-74623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}