Three tries to one for New Zealand
The All Blacks managed to hold on in the face of a strong late charge to beat Argentina 25-19 in their one-off Test at Vélez Sársfield Stadium in Buenos Aires on Saturday. The visitors outscored the Pumas by three tries to one to maintain their unbeaten record against the South Americans.
It was a valiant attempt that saw the Pumas go unrewarded once again, but still the suspicion is maintained that this is a mature team that will do some damage at the next Rugby World Cup.
Certainly the Argentine pack proved more than a match for its opposition, and if the team can somehow unleash the potential that never fulfilled itself in this match outside the front eight, any rugby nation should have good cause to fear the worst against the South Americans.
They could not wait to get stuck into the game, breaking ranks even before their national anthem had ended.
Within the first five minutes, they had stolen two of the All Blacks' first three line-outs and had forayed twice into the New Zealand 22. From the second stolen line-out, they got a penalty, and Federico Todeschini gave them the lead.
The New Zealand line-out was a mess for much of the opening forty minutes, even if the jumpers managed to scramble possession from it most of the time. Argentina's jumpers contested gamely in the air, and tested the limits of referee Nigel Whitehouse's tolerance as to positioning once the ball had entered the field of play.
As a result, the All Blacks' only solid platform from which to run was from the scrums, but with both teams making few unforced handling errors, there were not many of those.
From one, some strong running forced a penalty for hands in the ruck, from which Dan Carter equalised, and two minutes later, the All Blacks unleashed the backs from a stolen line-out of their own.
Sam Tuitupou managed to get a half-yard of forward momentum outside Gonzalo Tiesi, and then Isaia Toeava, Scott Hamilton and Rico Gear all combined with the latter halted only a couple of yards short. Leon MacDonald picked the ball up at the back of the ruck and dived over on the short side for the try.
The try rounded off a messy opening ten minutes which saw both teams make no secret of how they might want to play the game. Argentina's forwards mauled from line-outs and Todeschini released a couple of bombs onto the New Zealand back three, with chasers creating pressure in the greasy conditions.
Meanwhile, Carter kicked away from touch and for territory, and the All Blacks did the simple things and bided their time in patience. It paid off with MacDonald's try, but with Argentina making few errors and squeezing out a steady stream of penalties, it was a moot point whether it would be enough.
The second quarter of the match saw Argentina well into the ascendancy, and it kicked off with a superb try by Martin Durand. After another New Zealand line-out had been pinched -- by Ledesma standing in a curious position on the New Zealand side of the tap-down -- Agustín Pichot sneaked away down the short side, popped to Jose Maria Nuñez Piossek, who left Durand with a 20-yard dash for the line to the rapture of the fans.
Todeschini, who had landed his second penalty shortly before, stroked over a graceful conversion to make it 13-8, and then made it 16-8 when Jerry Collins was caught collapsing a maul.
The penalty count was well against the All Blacks, particularly in the first half, and although there was a measure of pressure from the Puma pack and chasers, quite a few of the decisions drew bemused looks from the New Zealanders.
Todeschini missed two more shots at goal later in the half which could have seen the All Blacks under more pressure than they eventually were, and Dan Carter bailed them out with a superb solo try just before the break.
A rare error from an Argentine hand -- Tiesi dropping the ball from Pichot's pass -- led to a 5m scrum for the visitors, and Carter took the ball, shimmied and sped through a glaring gap between 10/12 to go under the posts, making the half-time score 16-15.
New Zealand upped the tempo at the start of the second half, but Carter could not capitalise initially, missing two penalty kicks.
Penalties were a feature of the half, as a combination of zealous refereeing and the increasingly messy pitch and weather made fluidity tricky and infringements more common.
But from Carter's second miss, the 22 drop out was turned into a try. The recycled ball moved left, and Jason Eaton translated his line-breaking skills from the Super 14 onto the higher stage, making 25m before releasing the excellent Chris Masoe. Masoe was well-tackled by the back-pedalling Piossek, but the ball popped up and struck Piossek's foot, wrong-footing the defence and allowing Scott Hamilton to pounce on the loose ball for the score. Carter made no mistake with the conversion, putting the All Blacks 16-22 in the lead.
Penalties dominated from then on, more of them to the Pumas, but Todeschini's boot was not firing properly, and he missed two more attempts. One he did score was swiftly cancelled out by one from Carter to make it 19-25, but the Pumas stayed in touch, and the final ten minutes produced an energetic finale.
Piossek and MacDonald were sent to the bin, Piossek for slowing the ball down and MacDonald for killing the ball, two offences that were picked up an awful lot by referee Whitehouse.
In between, Todeschini kept the Pumas alive by intercepting a scoring pass, after a superb move involving Carter, Masoe, Tuitupou and Hamilton, with the latter denied a second try on his debut by Todeschini's timeous hands.
But with the Puma pack lasting the pace and proving significantly more wily about keeping possession than New Zealand might have expected, the pressure for a match-winning score built, and the crowd roared with anticipation.
Two penalties in the final three minutes took the Pumas to within five metres of the All Black line. Phase after phase of mauled ball inched them closer, then one expansive back movement brought play over to the other side of the pitch, but it was Masoe who snatched the ball from the ruck's murky depths, and allowed Weepu to kick the ball away to safety.
Man of the match: Several candidates on the Argentina side, including Rodrigo Roncero's domination of Greg Somerville, Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe's energy and Agustín Pichot's coolness at scrum-half. For the All Blacks, Dan Carter and Rico Gear were their usual effervescent selves, Jason Eaton was a giant in the loose, and Scott Hamilton ran his socks off and deserved his try. But for a combination of all of the attributes mentioned among those three, Chris Masoe can look back on his performance with pride.
Moment of the match: The build-up of noise to Argentina's final movement of the match took fanatical support to another level, and just steals the thunder from Carter's try.
Villain of the match: A joint award to Jason Eaton and Rimas Alvarez Kairelis for the ongoing handbags. Once is a misunderstanding. Twice is cynical. And so on and downwards ...
The scorers:
For Argentina:
Try: Durand
Con: Todeschini
Pens: Todeschini 4
For New Zealand:
Tries: MacDonald, Carter, Hamilton
Cons: Carter 2
Pens: Carter 2
Yellow card(s): José María Núñez Piossek (Argentina) -- slowing the ball, 67; Leon MacDonald (New Zealand) -- killing the ball, 70.
The teams:
Argentina: 15 Juan Martin Hernández, 14 José María Núñez Piossek, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Felipe Contepomi, 11 Federico Martín Aramburu, 10 Federico Todeschini, 9 Agustín Pichot (captain), 8 Gonzalo Longo, 7 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, 6 Martín Durand, 5 Rimas Alvarez Kairelis, 4 Ignacio Fernández Lobbe, 3 Omar Hasan, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16 Pablo Gambarini, 17 Martín Scelzo, 18 Martín Schusterman, 19 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 20 Nicolas Fernández Miranda, 21 Lucas Borges, 22 Federico Serra.
New Zealand: 15 Leon MacDonald, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Isaia Toeava, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Scott Hamilton, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Mose Tuiali'i, 7 Chris Masoe, 6 Jerry Collins (captain), 5 Ali Williams, 4 Jason Eaton, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Anton Oliver, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 Neemia Tialata, 18 Troy Flavell, 19 Craig Newby, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 Luke McAlister, 22 Ma'a Nonu.
Referee: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Touch judges: Dave Pearson (England), Eric Darrière (France)
Television match official: Giulio De Santis (Italy)
Assessor: Frans Muller (South Africa)
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