ABs building nicely in spite of loss: Carter

WELLINGTON: The All Blacks’ loss to Australia in the TriNations last week was a setback, but first fiveeighth great Dan Carter is adamant the side is building nicely as it prepares to face Argentina in Sydney tonight.

The All Blacks were beaten 2422 by the Wallabies last week, just seven days after they had inflicted a record 435 defeat on their Australian counterparts and sealed the Bledisloe Cup for the 18th successive season.

Carter, however, was not overly concerned with the reversal last week, as the team is in a rebuilding phase in 2020 after several senior players left New Zealand rugby following their third at last year’s World Cup.

‘‘They had a bit of a setback last weekend,’’ Carter said. ‘‘They are building.

‘‘They’re happy with the way they have progressed and they’re obviously blooding a few players this year which is a natural progression post World Cup.

‘‘There is a lot of exciting young talent in that team. The more times they play together the stronger and better they will get.’’

All Black captain Sam Cane indicated yesterday the South Americans could expect a backlash.

‘‘We weren’t overly proud of last week’s performance,’’ Cane said.

‘‘Based off the way we’ve trained this week, the group has been pretty clinical.

‘‘We’ll be going out looking to put in a much improved performance and one we can be proud of.

‘‘I don’t feel I have to motivate the team as such to play well because they’ve got a bit of an edge about them already.’’ — Reuters