All Blacks keen to atone for poor starts
Slow out of the blocks in their last two tests, the All Blacks realise another false start will again force them to chase down the Pumas. And that won’t be as easy in the hostile Buenos Aires atmosphere as it was in Hamilton last time these two teams met.
The All Blacks’ supreme finalquarter dominance has masked their recent slow starts.
The Pumas had them on the backfoot from the outset at Waikato Stadium - left wing Santiago Cordero capitalising on soft ruck defence to open the scoring with one of his three tries in this Rugby Championship.
In the next assignment, against the Springboks, veteran wing Bryan Habana opened up the All Blacks rather easily to claim the first try in Christchurch. The same was true early in the series against Wales in June, too.
As punters and pundits reflected on what were, in the end, two comfortable victories that came on the back of thrashing the Wallabies twice, the slow starts have been largely overlooked.
Rest assured that is not the case within the All Blacks. Standards are always high, and this is just one area that’s been addressed this week.
Those who have featured in Argentina on previous excursions know the boisterous, festival type crowd feed off any mistakes the All Blacks make. The locals will do everything they can to unsettle the visitors in the hope their men can knock over the All Blacks for the first time.
‘‘We want a good start this week. It’s a focus of ours,’’ playmaker Beauden Barrett said after the All Blacks wrapped up training in sun-drenched conditions.
‘‘It is every game but in particular Argentina come out firing and we have to match that in their backyard. They’re very passionate and feed off their home crowd so we want to get on top of that early.’’
Barrett, enjoying a dream season, is well aware of his opposite Nicolas Sanchez, a popular figure who is front and centre on billboards in the Argentine capital endorsing beer and cars alongside the likes of Lionel Messi.
‘‘He’s a very skillful player, a great goalkicker but also he’s a brave young man. He puts his body on the line defensively and when he starts to run the ball he’s a dangerous threat.’’
The problem for Sanchez and the Pumas is passion eventually wanes. So often the Pumas shed tears in the anthem and use the haka to fuel their desire, only to fade when it matters most.
This was true in Hamilton, and at last year’s World Cup where
they had the All Blacks in major strife before seeing them roll over the top at Wembley.
Lifting their competitiveness from 50 to 80 minutes remains the Pumas’ major challenge.
They’ll also have to contend with highly motivated opponents, some of whom will be fringe All Blacks hungry to grab rare starting chances, with changes only adding to internal competition.
Liam Squire is favoured to come in for the injured Jerome Kaino on the blindside, and different combinations have run in the backline at training this week.
One school of thought is TJ Perenara could be in line for just his fifth test start, with Aaron Smith enduring a heavy workload this season. Perenara produced his best test performance off the bench in the last outing against the Pumas.