All Blacks ready for redemption
RUGBY
MELBOURNE: The All Blacks say they are not feeling more pressure from the ‘‘haters’’ than they already put on themselves before Saturday’s crucial TriNations clash against Argentina.
The All Blacks are out for redemption in Newcastle after suffering their first loss to the Pumas.
That came on the back of a defeat to the Wallabies, their first consecutive defeats since 2011.
Courtesy of the WallabiesPumas draw last round, the All Blacks are still in the hunt to add the Tr Nations trophy to the Bledisloe Cup, with victory required in their last Test of the year.
Despite their two losses, the teams are all on six points with New Zealand on top of the ladder due to two bonus points and a superior pointsdifferential.
Veteran Sam Whitelock said there was always pressure — internally and externally — to win, so they would not approach Saturday’s match any differently.
‘‘For us as All Blacks, we always put ourselves under immense pressure, whether win, lose or draw and I think we always demand of ourselves that we go out and play really well,’’ Whitelock said yesterday.
‘‘There is a bit of pressure there at the moment but the reality is that there’s pressure every week and you have to embrace it.’’
Locking partner Patrick Tuipulotu said they were aware their record had put new coach Ian Foster in the firing line, and he felt they owed him the win as much as they owed it to themselves.
‘‘As the coach he’s always the face of the squad and if we lose two in a row [to Argentina] he’s always going to get the blame,’’ the lock said.
‘‘In this day and age you’re going to get a lot haters, as we call it, but we just move on.
‘‘It’s on us to get a result and perform well.’’
With two weeks to stew over the 2515 Pumas scoreline, Whitelock said it had also given them time to have work through the lacklustre performance and really finetune for their game.
‘‘It has been good to use last week differently and we’ve had extra time to have those little conversations that during a normal test are hard to have because you don’t have time,’’ he said. — AAP