Scott Robertson’s All Blacks excelled with lineout accuracy, scrummaging power and a lethal driving maul.
Their attempts at fast, skilled play led to confusion and errors, despite a 31-7 lead.
The team may need to embrace a more controlled, forward-focused game to maintain success.
Scott Robertson is determined to build a team of cavaliers, but after posting a victory in Cordoba built on doggedness, resilience and a lethal driving maul, he may have to accept that his All Blacks look better placed to conquer the rugby world recast as roundheads.
What gotthe All Blacks home in Argentina and saw them leapfrog South Africa to claim the world No 1 ranking was their lineout accuracy, scrummaging power, unstoppable driving maul and the dual kicking game of Beauden and Jordie Barrett.
What got the All Blacks into trouble – left them scrambling and scrapping to hold off a strong Pumas resurgence – was their raggedness, confusion and ill-discipline.
This obvious gulf between the coaching vision and the team’s ability to produce it leaves the All Blacks in a fascinating quandary about whether to pull back from this notion that they can run opponents off their feet and to lean more heavily into slowing things down and playing around their set-piece strength.
There was, to be blunt, little to no evidence in the first 80 minutes of their Rugby Championship campaign to suggest the All Blacks have the cohesion, skill levels or natural instincts to execute accurately and effectively when they tried to play at their desired, fast tempo.
All Blacks No 8 Ardie Savea gets caught in the heart of a heavy maul in Argentina. Photo / Photosport
Much of their work in the first half was marred by confusion and basic errors – they loaded the backline with runners coming around the corner to play off Jordie Barrett. But it was busy-busy without ever giving a firm sense that everyone knew what was supposed to be happening.
The timing was off, the movement never quite sharp enough – and the one time the All Blacks did open up the Pumas, it was entirely down to Will Jordan’s individual brilliance.
Too often, passes went flying behind the intended target and the ball was dropped or lost in contact as carriers found themselves trying to simultaneously gather possession and ride the tackle.
Rieko Ioane looked particularly lost in the whole business of bringing him in off his wing to probe for space in the midfield, and Billy Proctor is finding it harder than many predicted to play his natural game at this level.
The overriding theme from the All Blacks in the first 40 minutes was a lack of cohesion and accuracy, and yet they found themselves 31-10 ahead – which was due to the moments of dominance they enjoyed when they won scrum penalties, kicked deep to the touchline and then worked their driving maul from the lineout.
And it was a similar story in the final 12 minutes of the game when the All Blacks put a prolonged wobbly period behind them by reverting to the scrum-penalty-lineout formula to enable Samisoni Taukei’aho to score two driving-maul tries.
There was some astute captaincy from Ardie Savea woven into that last 12 minutes, as, having taken over the leadership when Scott Barrett departed after 55 minutes, he had the natural instincts to sense that Argentina had no means to resist the lineout drive.
As unimaginable, or even unpalatable as it is, the All Blacks have to consider giving up on their goal of being the world’s great entertainers and accept that their pack has the core skills, size and technically proficiency to crush the life out of opponents.
The idea may be anathema, but the prospect of the All Blacks playing a more patient, controlled, conservative brand of rugby executed at a more sedate pace is one that will have their opponents more fearful than the grand vision of trying to pull off 100-mile-an-hour rugby that ups the aerobic content.
In the coming weeks, the All Blacks will welcome back Tyrel Lomax and Tamaiti Williams to dramatically increase the scrummaging horsepower, while the all-round contributions in Cordoba of the four-strong locking contingent of Fabian Holland, Scott Barrett, Patrick Tuipulotu and Tupou Vaa’i were enough to be confident they can sustain compelling set-piece, breakdown and ball-carrying efforts for the full 80 minutes.
Wallace Sititi is expected to be available this week too and if the All Blacks are prepared to embrace their inner roundhead and build their game more extensively around the forwards and the kicking game of the Barrett brothers, it would increase the likelihood of them retaining the number one spot.
This is who they are – old-school scrummagers and breakdown bullies, qualities they shouldn’t be afraid to embrace and celebrate.
