A dejected David Havili and Ardie Savea after the All Blacks' defeat. Photo / Photosport
A dejected David Havili and Ardie Savea after the All Blacks' defeat. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
One result, it turns out, does not a summer make or indeed provide justification to have persevered with the All Blacks coaching regime and wider management team.
There is still very much trouble at mill – the sort that doesn't appear capable of being fixed without yet more changesbeing made to the leadership of the team.
The New Zealand Rugby board went evolution last week and deferred to their natural conservative mode by opting for a light touch change to the coaching team of elevating Joe Schmidt to attack coach.
Perhaps they have to be thinking revolution now before it's too late. The records can't keep falling like this. A brand that was worth $3.5 billion at the start of the year must be tumbling in value and there needs to be an honest assessment that the hope that emerged in the wake of the All Blacks victory at Ellis Park, has shown itself to be false.
An imposter of the worst kind because the All Blacks have collected another unwanted first of losing a home test to Argentina and their sixth in their last eight matches.
A dejected David Havili and Ardie Savea after the All Blacks' defeat. Photo / Photosport
Surely everyone can agree there is something seriously wrong with the All Blacks: that the cosmetic surgery applied to the coaching team in recent weeks has not cured all the ills that beset the All Blacks.
The malaise runs much deeper. The rot has set in and while everyone wanted to believe that the win in Johannesburg and the decision to back Ian Foster as head coach with Jason Ryan and Schmidt as his assistants would herald a new beginning, the performance in Christchurch said not.
The performance in Christchurch said that bits of the machine are working. There is power in the set-piece and bite in the defence.
But the balance of bits working to broken is heavily weighted to the latter. The breakdown was carnage. Not in a physical sense, but in terms of discipline. A young referee was maybe guessing at times, seeing things that weren't quite there, but still, the All Blacks didn't adapt, or find a way around the problems they had in that area and were penalised out of the game for endless offences.
And the All Blacks didn't capitalise on the control they had in the first half, when it felt like they were keen to demonstrate the full extent of their forwards' power, not because it was the right strategic ploy necessarily, but more just to show everyone what they can now do.
It wasn't always particularly effective, but it was mostly impressive – particularly the ability to keep the ball in the scrum and squeeze the Pumas past breaking point.
Scrumming for penalties feels somehow wrong, like waiting for the reminder to pay the electricity bill, but it does have its advantages. The All Blacks were able to make major, quick territorial gains by winning scrum penalties inside their 22, hoofing it downfield to touch and then driving a maul off the lineout.
None of it was pretty. None of if came under the umbrella of entertainment, but there's no question this sort of rugby is an important string for the All Blacks to have to their bow.
Samso Gonzalez of Argentina scores a try. Photo / AP
The great lament is so often that the All Blacks don't have any other plan than to play wide and fast and so to be able to rely on a set-piece power game and revert to conservative mode with such ease, may not have been something to celebrate on a bitterly cold night in Christchurch, but it could be next year in the balmier climes of France when its World Cup knock-out time.
But if the All Blacks are going to come to rely in this alternative style, they will have to learn how to bolt additional bits on to the basics of scrum, maul, kick.
And that was the problem with the performance in Christchurch – it lacked any kind of finesse. The show of strength was chest-puffing proud, but it needed some creative balance; a touch of pass and catch class.
It never really came, though and the All Blacks just weren't able to transition out of their power game to a slick, running force.
They could build pressure and opportunity, but couldn't capitalise on it because their discipline was poor at the breakdown.
Their ball retention was poor in the contact and they were back to running predictable lines, ball carriers sticking their heads down and charging.
They once again looked like a team plagued with self-doubt. They once again looked like a team who were uncertain about how to break free from a resilient defence or how to find ways to force the tempo up and to stop Argentina from being able to keep the contest a chug from one stoppage to the next: a glacial encounter that trudged from set-piece to set-piece.
