Hansen hails All Blacks’ new starter Lienert-Brown
BUENOS AIRES: New Zealand locked up their 16th Test win in a row with a 36-17 victory over Argentina in Buenos Aires on Saturday but the bad news for the rest of world rugby was not just the five-try blitz that triggered it.
A year after Richie McCaw and Dan Carter led a golden generation of players into Test retirement, the production line of talent that has kept the All Blacks top of the rugby world for nearly a decade shows no sign of slowing down.
Having wrapped up the Rugby Championship title with two rounds to spare, coach Steve Hansen gave starts to a trio of inexperienced players and was rewarded with a bruising performance from lock Patrick Tuipulotu.
Flanker Liam Squire’s evening was complicated by a “team” yellow card doled out in the second half but the pick of the bunch was undoubtedly centre Anton Lienert-Brown.
The 21-year-old’s 27th-minute try, crashing over the line after Beauden Barrett showed quick hands to get him the ball, was the least spectacular of his contributions to four of New Zealand’s five scores.
Two brilliant offloads gave tries to Ryan Crotty and Ben Smith while his chargedown of a Santiago Gonzales Iglesias kick led to a score for hooker Dane Coles, but only after Lienert-Brown had lobbed the ball inside for the final pass.
“[He] is growing all the time and one thing he has got is a beautiful offloading game and we saw a lot of that tonight from him,” Hansen told reporters at Velez Sarsfield.
“As he gets older and plays more rugby I think that’ll be one of his trademarks.”
The world champions head to Durban for their final Test next weekend and victory over South Africa at Kings Park would match the top tier record for consecutive wins.
BOKS RESTORE SELF-BELIEF
South Africa coach Allister Coetzee praised his side’s defending after Saturday’s 18-10 win over Australia at Loftus Versfeld and said their “backs to the wall” victory had restored some self-belief.
The Springboks triumphed despite Australia having the majority of territory and possession in a performance characterised by scrambling defence and the steady boot of fly-half Morne Steyn, who kicked all of their points.
“It was an important win, not only for our confidence, but also self-belief,” Coetzee told reporters. “For a team that had their backs to the wall, a win like this means a lot and is a definite confidence booster.”
Coetzee praised new defence coach Chean Roux and said that, despite failing to score a try in Pretoria, their attack was improving.
“Our defence was outstanding and our set-piece delivered the needed pressure on them when we needed it, which resulted in points for us at crucial times,” he said.
“I have to give credit to defence coach Chean Roux as he worked very hard this week to get everyone on the same page.”