Power of Puma's pack to give All Blacks yardstick

The All Blacks take on the Pumas in 2004. Inset: Mike Cron.

BUENOS AIRES - Scrummaging guru Mike Cron revisited an embarrassing and little-known footnote in All Black rugby history when emphasising the Argentinian pack would be no pushover when two beefy forward units collide here on Saturday.

Cron has a glint in his eye when appraising the set piece battle at Velez Sarsfield (11.30am Sunday NZT), but back in 1976 he would probably not have known where to look when the Pumas pack pulverised an All Black eight including his brother Stu in Buenos Aires.

No longer regarded as an official test match, the encounter, won by the All Blacks has been expunged from the New Zealand Rugby Union records, possibly with good reason after the tourists had to resort to tactics Cron described as "not far off underarm bowling".

Such was the Argentine domination at scrum time, when New Zealand had the feed they would line-up only the front row in a bid to sidestep physical punishment.

"In those days if it was your ball it was a minimum of three and maximum of eight (in the scrum).

"We went for three and as soon as the ball went in (hooker) John Black wanged it out the back. It was like a sevens' scrum."

New Zealand also admitted set piece defeat in France the following year, using the same tactic although it was swiftly outlawed and the scrum returned to a level playing field.

While Argentina may never have beaten the All Blacks in a dozen official tests since 1985, but when playing with the security of home advantage their monster pack has rarely been bettered.

"It's a macho pride thing," Cron explained before overseeing the All Blacks final scrummaging hit out here today.

"They crave physical dominance. It doesn't matter what happens out in the backs - for them it's eight on eight."

Cron traces the Pumas desire for forward domination to the late 1960s where they pioneered the eight man shove.

"They were the first country in the world to design eight man scrummaging, the first that actually got their locks and loosies to push.

"It goes way back. They basically taught the Poms and in '71 the Lions came over to New Zealand and knocked us around."

Parity has been achieved since then in an eight-on-eight world, but Cron said the one-off test offered a tantalising opportunity to measure this particular All Black pack's capabilities ahead of the World Cup.

"Playing Argentina in Argentina - it doesn't get much harder," he said.

"It'll be a new experience for us (hooker Anton Oliver is the only player remaining from the starting pack from the side that squeaked to a 24-20 win here in 2001).

"It'll be a good challenge. This season we'll know where we're at by the end of the year.

"We will have played against most of the top scrummaging nations - Argentina, France, South Africa, England ....

"This weekend will be a step up from Ireland. It'll be an arm wrestle.

"They're strong boys, in the Welsh game (won by the Pumas 47-25 here last Saturday) they defended hard.

"A lot of them play in France, they don't mind the physical stuff."

Argentina are expected to name French-based bruisers Rodrigo Roncero and Omar Hasan to bookend hooker Mario Ledesma - a trio designed to give Tony Woodcock, Oliver and Greg Somerville a testing time.

Aside from an impressive physical stature described by Cron as "wide across the chest" the Pumas forwards also pose an unusual technical challenge to the All Blacks at the engagement.

While the All Blacks scrum sets horizontally with the emphasis on a straight back, the Pumas start high, squat and unleash the bulk of their power after the hit.

"They have a different style of scrummaging," Cron said.

"We place a lot of emphasis on our hit, they tend to worry about generating power after the hit."

Scrum training was modified to replicate the Argentine body positions with Cron confident it was "not difficult to imitate".

- NZPA