It’s played four, won three, lost one for Razor’s All Blacks. Last Saturday night’s slip against the Pumas was the first defeat of his tenure and puts the new coach under greater pressure ahead of the Eden Park rematch.
Argentina remain hard to predict. Hosting an understrength French team in July, they lost 28-13 before bouncing back to win 33-25. Arriving in New Zealand after a meaningless 79-5 rout of Uruguay, few imagined they could knock over the All Blacks.
They did, 38-30, and will be desperate to cause another big surprise when the men in black defend their long-standing record at Eden Park.
In 49 tests the All Blacks have staged at the Auckland venue since losing to France in 1994, they have never been beaten, with 49 wins and two draws.
The All Blacks have made only four changes to the 23.
One was enforced because of a neck injury for loosehead prop Ethan de Groot, giving Tamaiti Williams a start.
The other tweaks saw Will Jordan return, as expected, on the right wing ahead of Sevu Reece while Caleb Clarke starts on the left flank ahead of Mark Tele’a and Rieko Ioane takes Anton Lienert-Brown’s place at centre.
Robertson said they were looking to experience for a response at Eden Park, with TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett retained at halfback and fullback respectively.
The big questions are whether the All Blacks can cut out the mistakes, play in Argentina’s half more often, compete better against their rugged forward pack, and if Damian McKenzie can take greater control of Robertson’s team in the test arena.
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson says they have gone for a few combinations, also a little bit of experience in there, that they think is needed for this weekend.
The All Blacks and Argentina first met in 1985 and tonight’s clash will be the 39th test between the two nations.
The All Blacks play the Pumas at 7.05 tonight while the Wallabies meet the Springboks at 9.45pm in Perth.
Source: Stuff.co
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