Sam Cane looks on during the All Blacks loss to the Wallabies in Brisbane. Photo / Photosport
Sam Cane looks on during the All Blacks loss to the Wallabies in Brisbane. Photo / Photosport
Everything indicates a rapid response from the All Blacks this week. You could, in fact, go as far to suggest tomorrow night's match against the Pumas in Sydney is not a fair fight.
Argentina, on the back of two warm-up games against Australia A, may be walking into the perfectstorm.
A brooding All Blacks team restored to their first-choice combinations is intent on rectifying last week's defeat at Suncorp Stadium, a result that etched the first loss on the Ian Foster-Sam Cane tenure.
No excuses are available for the All Blacks, and no mercy will be given.
"We obviously weren't overly proud of last week's performance," in-form skipper Cane said. "We came out of the review at the start of the week with some clear focuses and there's been a few changes to the side as well with a few guys that are freshened up, but also match ready because they've played a bit of rugby this year, so we'll be going out there to put on a much improved performance.
"Based off the way we've trained this week the group has been pretty clinical. With that we've got to get the mental aspect of the game right, and that comes down to attitude to get up off our line defensively and a lot to do with work-rate."
The All Blacks arrive at Bankwest Stadium with the significant advantage of having played a full Super Rugby Aotearoa campaign followed by four tests in the past five weeks.
Many of the Pumas, meanwhile, have savoured little game time since the Covid-19 outbreak in March, while their last test together was at the 2019 World Cup.
Cast your mind back to the opening Bledisloe Cup test in Wellington and for all the extra-time drama in the 16-16 draw, the 80 minutes prior was littered with clunky mistakes as both the All Blacks and Wallabies battled for cohesion in their first outings of the delayed test year.
That is where the Pumas now sit.
Such underdone preparation was one of the major reasons South Africa pulled out of the Rugby Championship at the 11th hour, forcing the tournament to cut half its games and rebrand as the Tri Nations.
Sam Cane looks on during the All Blacks loss to the Wallabies in Brisbane. Photo / Photosport
No matter the result this weekend, the Pumas do deserve respect for fronting under such uneven circumstances.
"We've definitely got a little bit of an advantage over them in that area having played four test matches in the last five weeks," Cane said. "With that they'll be very fresh and having had four weeks together training for this game, they'll be well structured and know how they want to play the game so that might even it out a wee bit."
Argentina always bring passion, physicality, punchy angled running lines, rolling maul strengths and frequent offloads to the first half exchanges in particular, but their tendency to fade in the final quarter is likely to be enhanced by their lack of recent exposure to the test arena.
Australia A to the All Blacks is a gigantic leap in class.
With Aaron Smith back at halfback, Richie Mo'unga at 10 and Beauden Barrett in the 15 jersey, expect the All Blacks to adopt furious pace and tempo as they attempt to further test Argentina's conditioning.
Last time out against the All Blacks in Buenos Aires in 2019, the Pumas got within four points of their first upset victory. Yet the last five games between the two nations paints a more accurate picture, with the All Blacks averaging a 15-point winning margin.
Despite the presence of experienced Pumas Juan Imhoff, Nicolas Sanchez, Tomas Cubelli, captain Pablo Matera and Guido Petti, few would be surprised if that margin blows out further this weekend.
"Any time a team has had a lot of preparation going into a test match and so much has gone into it they're always going to be a dangerous side," Cane cautioned. "They're the first Argentinean side to be representing their country this year so they'll go out with immense pride and we know how passionate they can be, so we'll expecting the first 20 minutes particularly for it to be all on."
