Eight talking points from the Rugby Championship and something special from Hawera.
Does the Rugby Championship matter? Yeah, nah
For a start, it apparently matters enough for Air New Zealand to change the flight out of Buenos Aires to get the All Blacks back home as quickly as possible forSaturday's test with South Africa in Wellington.
History from the last two World Cups shows that winning the Rugby Championship means nothing. But ... the 20-16 win against the Pumas was the chance to blood a bunch of new All Blacks, and should, for example, prop Atu Moli, or loose forward Luke Jacobson find themselves jogging to a defensive lineout in the last minute of a key game at the Cup, it won't be a frighteningly new experience.
"We knew we'd be a bit rusty, and we were," was how All Blacks coach Steve Hansen summed up the test. What made the game a frustrating spectacle was the weird fact the Pumas, despite having 13 players from the Jaguares, were often all thumbs, too. Thankfully, the defence at the 80th-minute lineout of a Pumas throw saved yesterday from starting with the bitter taste of a shock loss in a pretty tedious game.
Bless that backyard footy
Beauden Barrett's 67th minute tackle on Ramiro Moyano saved an almost certain try, which might have, with the way Nicolas Sanchez was kicking, given the Pumas a three-point lead going into the last minutes of the match. The Barrett kids, it's been well recorded, spent hours on the family farm playing pick-up footy amongst themselves, and the way Barrett shepherded Moyano to the sideline screamed of a country kid tackling a brother into a rosebush touchline.
How tempted would you be?
Ardie Savea is playing the best rugby of his career, and against a Pumas side that has terrific, accurate defence, he was still able to make bursting, rampaging runs. At No 8, his speed almost invariably leads to him making the gain line off a scrum. So given that blindside flanker hasn't been a lock for anyone since Jerome Kaino departed, would playing Kieran Read, technically impeccable on defence and in the lineout, in the No 6 jersey, with Savea on the back of the scrum be an option worth considering?
Brodie Retallick runs with the ball to score a try during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires. Photo / AP
What more can Ngani Laumape do?
There is no question Sonny Bill Williams is a dedicated trainer, admired and liked by players, coaches and management alike inside the All Blacks. But for at least two seasons, he hasn't provided the go forward on the field that Laumape now does. When he first arrived in New Zealand as a rugby player, Williams was revolutionary, with a superb bag of tricks from league. But that was nine long, body bashing years ago. Other younger men have learned to offload like him, and right now, we can't say what sort of form Williams is in because he's barely got through a game this year. Surely it would take at least one if not two blinders from Williams in the limited tests before the Cup to see someone like Laumape sidelined for him?
The biggest wing since Jonah Lomu
There's a lot to admire about Brodie Retallick. He was so wound up before the last crucial lineout, he was starting to smack around some of his own forwards. He's a threshing machine with rugby smarts in the middle of a maul. But what makes him the starter alongside Colin Meads in my greatest of the past 50 years All Blacks XV is his pace. Watching Retallick, all 121kg of him, galloping 50m for a try in the 38th minute was as enjoyable as the game can get.
Ever since the 2015 World Cup, there's been a bit of muttering about Beauden Barrett's goal kicking. Given how much pressure the Pumas applied, Barrett's 100 per cent kicking record in Buenos Aires surely signals he's now got his kicking skills down pat, and in the torrid atmosphere of the Jose Amalfitani Stadium, he had the temperament to exploit his seamless technique.
Beauden Barrett is tackled by Argentina's Los Pumas Santiago Medrano during a rugby championship match in Buenos Aires. Photo / AP
Shock of the week: Michael Cheika is unhappy with a referee
"It was clearly the wrong decision," said Wallabies coach Michael Cheika of the yellow card handed to prop Taniela Tupou in the 53rd minute of Australia's 35-17 loss to South Africa in Johannesburg. Maybe. "Clearing out" at the breakdowns is such a loose, violent area now that what Tupou did might have, at best, been penalised by some referees. But as referee Paul Williams pointed out to the Wallabies on the field, the Tupou charge on Rynhardt Elstadt was after the whistle. Yellow card or not, presumably Cheika realises the Boks were fielding six second stringers?
On the other hand, clearly the right decision
If you think I'm one who can never quite get over the appalling refereeing decision by Romain Poite in the last moments of the third test on the 2017 Lions tour that probably cost the All Blacks the game and the series, you're dead right. Who knows if Poite saw the call by Angus Gardner in Buenos Aires in the 20th minute when he penalised New Zealand? The ball bounced forward off Sam Cane and Anton Lienert-Brown couldn't help himself and grabbed it. Quite rightly, Lienert-Brown was penalised. If Poite was watching the TV coverage and he has any sense of shame, he should have been cringing on the couch.
Finally, my Heartland MVP off the field too
Having spoken at rugby clubs from Kaitaia to the Bluff for 40 years or so, I've lost count of how many sincere, heartfelt but to be honest almost numbingly repetitious "thank yous" to spouses and families I've heard from award winners. So how great it was at the Southern club awards in Hawera on Saturday night when the premier team's most valuable player Daniel Parete, with a mischievous grin and timing Billy T James would have been proud of, said: "And I know I should say a big thanks to my wife and kids, who I just haven't met yet."
