Argentina captain Pablo Matera couldn’t wipe the smile from his battered and bloodied face after his side’s upset triumph. New Zealand coach Scott Robertson cut a dejected figure following the first defeat of his short and shaky tenure.
"I’m disappointed. I’m hurt", says Scott Robertson. Photo / Photosport
In his fourth match in charge, after two knife-edge escapes against England and a rout of Fiji in San Diego, Robertson pinpointed execution and accuracy as flaws that cost the All Blacks deeply against the Pumas.
On a personal level, as an emotive figure, Robertson took his maiden defeat as coach to heart.
“You look at yourself first. You ask ‘what could I have done personally as the head coach, how could I have framed this week better, how could I have more edge?’ I’ll reflect over the next 24 hours. I’m disappointed. I’m hurt,” Robertson said. “They’ll look to me and I’ll make sure I put everything in place for them so we respond this week.”
Respond the All Blacks must in their rematch with the Pumas at Eden Park next Saturday. Otherwise, any hope of claiming the Rugby Championship title will be gone. But, as stand-in captain Ardie Savea noted, adversity shouldn’t be needed to spark the flame.
“As All Blacks, we shouldn’t need a loss to get a performance,” Savea said. “Our standards are that we should turn up every week. That’s the reality of rugby. We didn’t get it right tonight. It wasn’t good enough. Hopefully we can grow, learn and improve.
Dr Ceri Evans with All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson after the loss to Argentina. Photo / Photosport
“We’ve got to own it, look ourselves in the mirror as leaders and ask the players to do that too but we’ve got to stay tight together and try and get better each day. The good thing about rugby is we’ve got a chance to go again next week. We’ve got to walk towards the challenge.”
When they review this stop-start contest, the All Blacks will drill down into several frustrations.
Those include their inability to deal with the Pumas’ long kickoffs that trapped the All Blacks in their half. The breakdown, where the Pumas enjoyed success snaffling turnovers and slowing the All Blacks’ ball, will be another major focus – as will their hefty kicking strategy and ongoing lack of penetration on attack.
The turning point in this match, though, came after an Ethan Blackadder lineout steal. Leading by two points, with the degree of composure expected at this level, the All Blacks should have closed out the contest. Instead, with two wild passes from Ardie Savea and Damian McKenzie, the All Blacks handed Argentina a 5m scrum, from which former captain Agustin Creevy crashed over for the match-defining try.
“It was a key moment,” Robertson acknowledged, noting Sevu Reece’s tap back that gifted the Pumas a try before half time as another.
In the tense closing stages the All Blacks had chances to push for a comeback but a lost lineout and other errors proved pivotal. Unlike their two late escapes against England, the All Blacks couldn’t muster the field position or control to break their six-year winless drought in the capital.
“After every kickoff we put pressure on ourselves. That’s hugely frustrating,” Robertson said. “When we did the simple things well we looked great and then we reverted back to put pressure on ourselves.
Lineouts were again an issue for the All Blacks last night. Photo / Photosport
“They were good at the breakdown. We had a good week around mindset and creating an edge. We know Argentina from a few years ago... There’s a number of little things but we’ve got to find what’s critical now and move on.
“We’ve got to be better at kick plans, at exits, in lots of areas. It starts there.
“You’re always rethinking. We’ve been together five or six weeks. You’ve got to build trust in your processes so you believe and then execute. Now we’ve got to get the execution right.
“Well done to them you’ve got to commend them for playing their style and getting a result.”
For the Pumas, this victory sits alongside their first win over the All Blacks in 2020 and their maiden success on New Zealand soil two years ago. Their attention now turns Eden Park, and the chance to heap further pressure on Robertson’s All Blacks.
“I remember the first time how emotional we were. We believed it was something impossible, something that had never been done,” Matera said.
“This is a team in the last couple of years that is getting more and more ambitious, working better, working harder and putting higher standards. That’s why we wanted to do it a second time, a third time. We want to continue in this role.
“We had a plan. We worked the whole week on the plan and we stuck to it even when things were not going so well. That’s what kept us connected as a team and made the difference.”
