All Blacks v Argentina Eden Park, 8.30pm Sunday Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
All Black Colin Slade attended the same school as Daniel Carter, not that many have put him in the same league as the injured champion.
However the All Blacks were doing their collective best yesterday to ramp up the ex-Christchurch Boys High pupil's curriculum vitae and place him in the
top line of five-eighths ahead of Sunday's quarter-final with Argentina.
Leading that charge was one-time backline director and current assistant coach Wayne Smith, a man with reservoirs of passion for his men and confidence in their abilities.
"There is a lot of belief in him," he said of Slade. "And in my experience if you walk in the company of people who believe in you, then you can achieve anything and our expectations are really high. We have not altered the bar at all."
Spoken like a true team man who places those values as highly as the individual skills needed to become an All Black.
Slade had been working hard inside the World Cup setup for a month, said Smith, he'd started games against Japan and Canada and come on against Tonga and France. The 23-year-old had good allround skills, he was strong in his defensive channel and "not too different from Daniel really", said Smith.
At that point the comparisons seemed to be getting a little far-fetched. But Smith was in full flow. "So the plans remain the same, expectations are exactly the same, belief in the squad is exactly the same, so we don't see that anything has changed."
It is five years since the teams last met, in Buenos Aires, when the All Blacks won 25-19 after splitting their squad because they played Ireland the week before. Four of that starting team, Isaia Toeava, Piri Weepu, Ali Williams, Tony Woodcock and substitute Andrew Hore are in the frame for Sunday's test at Eden Park.
No 8 Kieran Read survived his 50 minutes return to work against Canada. This week would be a far more physical assignment.
Argentina took enormous pride in the work of their forwards and it was no secret how they would try to attack the All Blacks at Eden Park.
"That is where their entire game comes from, what they do up front and we are expecting a huge test," he said.
"They are actually pretty smart with it as well, probably one of the teams who have given away the least penalties and obviously they gain a lot as well so we have just got to be really smart about how they are going to attack us there."
While there might be national debate about Slade and his merits, Read admired the way he had played his rugby down south. Slade was a calm character with a very steady temperament. He had done an outstanding job against Canada at the Cake Tin.
Whoever came in this week would handle the job vacated by Carter. Hang on a tick. Whoever came in. Slip of the tongue, deliberate subterfuge or a change in selection thinking?
The All Blacks were a united squad who believed in the abilities of all players and whoever played five- eighths would do it well. There was national sadness about Carter's injury and the squad was hurting too. But they had to move on and show their strength. "That is what is needed to win a World Cup and the whole squad had to be prepared to put in the effort and start that this weekend because there is no tomorrow if we don't do it right," Read added.
The All Blacks hoped they would have Woodcock, Cory Jane, Israel Dagg and Richard Kahui available for selection after their niggles while Adam Thomson was optimistic his ankle would survive training this week.
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Argentina: We thrive as underdogs
Suffocate and subdue. Argentina's quarter-final strategy is no state secret and, just in case anyone doubted it, prop Marcos Ayerza reiterated the tactic yesterday.
The strength of the side lay in the work of their forwards, they built their confidence on that foundation and added a strong defensive formation to put the squeeze on their rivals.
That formula brought three wins in their pool after the narrow 13-9 loss to England in the opening round. Ayerza felt they had played their best rugby in that initial test in Dunedin and they were looking to recreate much of that pattern for Sunday's quarter-final against the All Blacks at Eden Park. If they got their setpiece working, the breakdown would follow and then the rest of their game.
"Many parts of the game against England were very good and if we keep that, rely on our defence, go to the setpiece and lower the tempo to our pace, those areas will be the key to having a chance to beat the All Blacks," he said.
"Argentina always play better when they are underdogs, he added.
"The passion of this team, the courage of this team and the pride in wearing the shirt comes through and we will step up our game. If we raise our level and our pace and everything, we will have a good chance of beating the All Blacks."
That was a hope more than a reality because the All Blacks were a better side. But Argentina had a chance if they channelled their passion and played with enormous heart, conviction and accuracy. The foundation for that hope had to come from the forwards.
The All Blacks' dominance had been reduced by the tournament-ending injury to first five-eighths Daniel Carter.
They relied on his excellence and would miss him but his replacement would be a strong footballer.
Ayerza has played more than 30 tests in his seven years with the Pumas and said the side had suffered since the last World Cup through their lack of test rugby.
The Four Nations series starting next year would help and many in the squad were hoping to hook up with one of the teams in the Super 15 series as well. But the immediate target was Sunday's quarterfinal.
They would not target Slade but hoped their forward strength would restrict the supply and quality of his possession.
