ABs singing in the rain, what a glorious feeling
A ruthless All Blacks team crushed Argentina last night to bury the demons of their first-test loss. Marc Hinton reports.
You knew it was coming. The alternative was simply unthinkable. But that did not make the All Blacks’ response against Argentina in Hamilton last night any less impressive.
Led by a masterclass performance from centre
Rieko Ioane and yet another world-class display from No 8 Ardie Savea, head coach Ian Foster’s All Blacks responded to one of their worst performances in recent memory just seven days earlier with one of their best on a night that very much put the smile back on their fans’ dials.
After last Saturday’s historic defeat to Argentina in Christchurch – the All Blacks’ third straight home loss, their fourth in
2022 and their sixth in the last eight – under-fire Foster did an interesting thing in the face of a torrent of criticism for both him and his side.
He acknowledged the shortcomings, which were legion, and even made a pointed reference to the All Blacks’ bullheaded persistence at playing ball-inhand rugby from unpromising positions.
‘‘It’s in our DNA,’’ he lamented, making it clear a shift was needed.
But he also showed faith in his main men, the starters. With many calling for frontliners to be dropped on the back of a largely insipid display, Foster sent out an unchanged starting XV, and made just a quartet of tweaks to his bench, which included Brodie Retallick and Beauden Barrett coming back from injury.
The onus was clearly on the first-choice brigade. Their coach had backed them to the hilt, and they simply had to respond.
They did so magnificently, with a super-charged performance that left the Pumas in their dust at FMG Stadium Waikato. Their 53-3, seven tries to nil, victory not only puts them squarely back in the Rugby Championship race, but was achieved with such a delicious mix of intensity, accuracy and style, that it could well turn into a key juncture in this troublesome year.
Time will tell on that, but this makes one heck of a launching pad.
Those All Blacks’ starters were outstanding across the board on a night where their accuracy in testing slippery conditions was off the charts good. They made something like three handling errors when the visitors at times made it look like the ball was made of soap.
Ioane (92 metres on the charge, four defenders beaten, three clean breaks) was into everything as his mates at last engineered some space for him to operate in, and Savea kept going and going and going, as he only he can. Others stood up splendidly. The forwards were dominant, at both set piece and the breakdown, and hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho continues to look like the find of the year with all that power and purpose.
Sam Cane answered his critics splendidly with a busy 63 or so minutes, leading the tackle count and chipping in well on the carry, while first-five Richie Mo’unga led a massive tactical adjustment superbly, secondfive David Havili took his options brilliantly and wing Caleb Clarke continued to show what a menace he is with ball in hand.
One of the big adjustments we had to see from the All Blacks after Christchurch was in their tactical game, and most importantly their kick options. It took just 20 minutes for the improvements and adjustments to be writ large in the drizzly night sky.
By the first-quarter mark the All Blacks were off to a flyer, out to 17-0 on the back of two welltaken tries, both of which came off adept, probing kicks. There is more than one way to skin a cat, as they say, and the New Zealanders had been made painfully aware that they had to bring some variation to their game with ball-in-hand after struggling so badly a week earlier.
It was obvious the message had got through as Foster’s men came out of the blocks with all the intensity, urgency and accuracy, punishing an off-key Pumas outfit who looked like they were still dining out on their historymaking feats of seven days earlier when this one kicked off in persistent light rain.
And the newfound subtlety in the All Blacks’ attacking game yielded immediate dividends with Ethan de Groot and Clarke both scoring on the back of adept kicks – the prop’s coming after a Havili chip-kick into the 22 was batted back by Will Jordan, and regathered by Ioane.
Clarke’s came when a Mo’unga grubber was scooped up by Jordan, and Ioane did the good work to set up his wing on the angled run.
The tone set early, the All Blacks did not take their eye off the ball, and kept coming at the Pumas with ruthless attitude and execution.
It took just 20 minutes for the improvements and adjustments to be writ large in the drizzly night sky.