Brodie Retallick and Tupou Vaa'i during an All Blacks scrum against Argentina. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Argentina will test the All Blacks in multiple ways on Sunday morning, but none will be more telling than the ability of the visitors to keep their cool in the face of severe provocation.
The Pumas are one of world rugby’s most renowned on-field agitators. It’s all part of their game to see if they can entice their opposition into moments of ill-discipline and they antagonise with some artistry.
Pulling the All Blacks into off-the-ball confrontations has certainly worked for the Pumas in the recent past.
They won for the first time against the All Blacks in 2020 when they indulged in what ultimately proved to be a clever, passionate and well-considered war of niggle.
A shove here, a jersey pull there and 20 minutes into the game, the All Blacks were rattled and distracted.
They got sucked into exacting revenge rather than playing their own game and the Pumas exploited that lack of discipline.
Manipulating the All Blacks into playing a way they don’t want to has become a genuine skill that the Pumas do better than most.
It worked again for them last year when they won in Christchurch. They didn’t get under the All Blacks’ skin that night in the same way, but what they did do was use the accuracy and speed of their defence to frustrate New Zealand into attacking exclusively in narrow channels.
As Richie Mo’unga said this week about that loss last year: “When you get one-dimensional about your style of play against the Argentineans, that’s when you can pay.
“They are a big physical team, real good loose forwards who want to get on the ball and love to jackal.
“Discipline let us down as well.”
Finding effective ways to stay mentally attuned for 80 minutes has been one of the constant battles for Ian Foster’s All Blacks.
The side’s discipline has been sketchy since 2020 - yellow and red cards have been a regular feature and have cost them dearly.
No one gets a prize for guessing that the Pumas, having done their homework, will want to try to intimidate and irritate the All Blacks in Mendoza.
Scott Barrett made mention of this very fact after the side had completed their first team training in Mendoza.
Asked if he and his teammates were expecting the Pumas to come after them in quasi-legal ways, he said: “We have to front if they’re going to bring it like that.
“We’ll deal with it in our way, whatever that might look like. We’re certainly aware of some consequences if they drag us into a bit of biff, if that’s what they are after.”
A hostile crowd will give the occasion yet more intensity and this opening test replicates perfectly what the road ahead looks like for the All Blacks in 2023.
The rest of the world has seen how the All Blacks can be mentally volatile: how they can be distracted, frustrated and lulled into battles they shouldn’t be fighting.
Be it through provocation, orchestrated go-slows designed to maximise and manufacture rest periods in breaks of play, or off the ball conflicts, the evidence is writ large that the All Blacks can be dragged down rabbit holes.
And so this weekend represents an ideal opportunity for the All Blacks to show they have finally found an effective means to counter and diffuse deliberate tactics designed to frustrate them.
Barrett’s willingness to tackle the topic head on suggests that the All Blacks have identified early what’s likely to be coming their way and that considerable time has been spent on building strategies to deal with it.
What he doesn’t say is what’s been equally apparent in the last few years - All Blacks ill-discipline has usually been a direct cause of their lack of physicality.
When they have been unable to win collisions or dominate the breakdown to recycle the ball at the speed they want, that’s when they have been susceptible to provocation.
Yellow cards have tended to be a byproduct of under-performance in the contact areas.
There’s a linked series of events that sit at the heart of test rugby – powerful ball carrying and technically adept cleanouts lead to quickly recycled possession, which leads to greater space to attack, which leads to quicker recycled ball and so on.
Momentum is everything but it needs to be generated, and when the All Blacks have got that bit right - as they did in the first half against England last year - they are a powerful force.
But when they can’t get that cycle flowing, that’s when they become vulnerable to opponents winding them up and committing dumb acts.
The match in Mendoza will provide a big clue as to how ready the All Blacks are to face the onslaught that awaits them in 2023.