Asecond half to forget
One after the other they wandered out.
Steve Hansen, Ian Foster and Kieran Read first, followed by Wyatt Crockett, Damian McKenzie, Scott Barrett and David Havili.
The last of them - All Black No.1161 - had a try on test debut to talk about.
For the rest of New Zealand’s playing or coaching contingent, the task was explaining a fairly mediocre. 36-10 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires.
Up 29-3 at halftime, the All Blacks had appeared poised to go and do to the Pumas what they’d done to South Africa two weeks prior. But instead of putting 50 on Argentina, New Zealand struggled to do much at all during a rather unedifying final 40 minutes.
In the end it was probably Scott Barrett who summed the secondhalf struggles up best.
Yellow cards to flanker Matt Todd and No.8 Kieran Read, either side of halftime, didn’t aid the All Blacks’ cause, but doesn’t really excuse how untidy their rugby became.
‘‘A lack of flow, interruptions in play, those cards,’’ Barrett said of the things that frustrated the team most.
‘‘The Pumas actually lifted and they disrupted us around the breakdown especially, trying to hold us up and [Agustin] Creevy [was good] over the ball. Our breakdown [work] wasn’t quite there and TJ and Aaron [halfbacks TJ Perenara and Aaron Smith] were having a bit of a tough day there.’’
Having played with great cohesion in the first half, the All Blacks could barely string three passes together in the second. Guys got a little bit cute, as well, attempting things that weren’t on.
Read (twice), McKenzie and Waisake Naholo were the first-half tryscorers, before Havili dived over after the final hooter.
It was one of the few things the team were able construct to a worthwhile conclusion, after going away from the basics.
‘‘We just needed something simple to go to and it was a wee bit frustrating that we just couldn’t get that momentum.’’
Those were sentiments backed up by Read.
‘‘When we do things simple and just back our ability to catch, pass and run pretty square, then generally it comes off pretty well for us,’’ Read said.
Second five-eighth Sonny Bill Williams did that well early on, allowing flair players such as McKenzie and Beauden Barrett to play off the back of it.
The pair either took gaps themselves or threw the pass that put a team-mate through.
Quite why it was so hard for the All Blacks to return to that method is anyone’s guess.
‘‘We’ll grow from that last 40 minutes and we’ll learn a lot about ourselves, which is a positive,’’ coach Steve Hansen said.
He was the first to say that the back-end of the match hadn’t been impressive. But he was determined to talk about how good it was for the team to be without Read and Todd or Sam Whitelock, Brodie Retallick and Sam Cane, who weren’t selected for this trip.
‘‘People like Scott Barrett, who thought Luke Romano probably had his best game in the jersey. They really stepped up and did well, so it was fantastic,’’ Hansen said.