But they could be better
penalty, going for the corner, but it was unforgivable to miss touch late in the first half after his team had been under sustained pressure.
Asked afterwards what he could learn from his first start Mo’unga said wryly: ‘‘I guess kick the ball out on the full.’’
Mo’unga is also not Beauden Barrett in the backfield, but then who is? He lost one ball in the tackle covering back that cost a five metre scrum. Barrett would have swooped on it with his pace and set off for the hills.
Despite nervy errors, Mo’unga transformed the All Blacks midfield. When was the last time we have seen two New Zealand midfield backs play as well as Lienert-Brown and Goodhue? Not since the days of Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith, playing off Dan Carter or Aaron Cruden.
Both Mo’unga and Goodhue referenced after the match the amount of good information that was coming in from all the players. And Perenara and Mo’unga were good enough to react quickly to what they were hearing and make the right calls. Time and again they pointed the All Blacks attack straight at the weakest point of Argentina’s defence.
The timing of Mo’unga’s short passes were exquisite, fixing the defence and enabling his runners to get metres over the gain line. Mo’unga also made a number of half breaks that kept the defence from drifting. On other occasions he would offer to straighten and go, or fake pump a pass to pull up the defence, then release the players outside him.
On one occasion Mo’unga created the space behind for Goodhue’s kick by pulling up the fullback, on another the accuracy of his long pass, as he took a hit from Lavanini, presented Owen Franks with a colossal overlap inside his 22, which the prop cheerfully ignored, showing some things really do not change.
These are the subtleties that make Mo’unga a special player. Hansen said given all the early replacements Mo’unga had come through ‘‘with flying colours.’’ A tad generous perhaps, but we were treated to glorious future possibilities.
It is almost obscene that New Zealand have Mo’unga, Barrett, Aaron Cruden and McKenzie in the same generation. You then throw in the likes of Ben and Aaron Smith, Goodhue, Lienert-Brown, Rieko Ioane, to name just a few from the cornucopia, and you wonder if anything is impossible.
In my view we should not be satisfied with how the All Blacks have been tracking these past two years. This is a golden generation that can take the world by storm. Given that Australia and Argentina have been losing by the same average score that a knackered France ‘B’ team were losing by in June, we cannot be sure yet of the allconquering brilliance of these All Blacks.
We will only know that when they come up against some decent defences on the northern hemisphere tour against England and Ireland, although England have also been shipping points lately.
Those matches will be more severe tests. But with these players anything is possible.
‘‘We should not be satisfied with how the All Blacks have been tracking these past two years. This is a golden generation that can take the world by storm.’’