All Blacks grab sixth championship
New Zealand won the Rugby Championship for the sixth time by beating Argentina 3517 in Buenos Aires on Saturday as they put a stunning home defeat by SA behind them.
The All Blacks led 21-3 at halftime before a sell-out 50,000 crowd and scored first in the second half through substitute Patrick Tuipulotu.
Victory gave New Zealand an uncatchable seven-point advantage over SA ahead of their showdown in Pretoria next Saturday.
New Zealand have 21 points, SA 14, Argentina eight and Australia five with one round remaining in the southern hemisphere championship.
A shock 36-34 triumph in Wellington earlier in September gave SA a glimmer of hope that they could win the competition a first time.
But they failed to secure a bonus point in a 23-12 win over Australia in Port Elizabeth.
That result left the All Blacks needing a win to secure the title and they outscored the Pumas by five tries to two to collect a bonus point as well.
No All Black was happier than flyhalf Beauden Barrett, who was successful with all four of his conversion attempts after missing four of six against the Springboks. Argentina were first to score with star flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez slotting an easy penalty after six minutes at the Estadio Jose Amalfitani.
But within two minutes New Zealand were ahead as winger Rieko Ioane scored the first of his two tries.
Fellow winger Waisake Naholo came into midfield and played a key role in a move continued by Ben Smith before Ioane cut inside to score and Barrett converted.
Naholo changed from creator to scorer on 17 minutes,
No All Black was happier than flyhalf Beauden Barrett, who was successful with all four of his conversion attempts after missing four of six against the Springboks
stretching to dot the ball down on the line.
Both teams scored two tries during the second half with Tuipulotu and Anton LienertBrown crossing for New Zealand and Barrett and Richie Mo'unga converting.
Tomas Cubelli and Emiliano Boffelli were the Argentine scorers and Sanchez added the conversions. –