All Blacks v Pumas
Kick-off: 7.05pm, Saturday 10 August (NZT)
Sky Stadium, Wellington
Live blog coverage on RNZ Sport
The All Blacks return to their least successful venue in recent times on Saturday night, but it's safe to say it'll be a surprise if they don't start to change that against the Pumas. Scott Robertson has rolled a few changes to his side that has won the first three tests of the year, most notably the injury-enforced ones at lock.
Ardie Savea takes over the captaincy in Scott Barrett's absence and will try and use his hometown knowledge to reverse the worryingly poor All Black record in Wellington. They've only won one out of the last six tests at Sky Stadium, however that does say a lot about the quality of opposition they've faced in that time.
Meanwhile, Argentina come in having won two and lost one of their tests so far this season under new coach Felipe Contepomi. He's a familiar face to Robertson, the two played against each other in a very close test in 2001, which would've been the Pumas' first ever win over the All Blacks until Robertson scored just before full time.
Scott Robertson faces the media. Photo: Lynne Cameron/SmartFrame
Here's a look at the teams:
All Blacks: 15 Beauden Barrett, 14 Sevu Reece, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Mark Tele'a, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Ardie Savea (c), 7 Dalton Papali'i, 6 Ethan Blackadder, 5 Sam Darry, 4 Tupou Vaa'i, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan De Groot
Bench: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu'ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Josh Lord, 20 Wallace Sititi, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Rieko Ioane, 23 Will Jordan
Pumas: 15 Juan Cruz Mallia, 14 Matias Moroni, 13 Lucio Cinti, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 8 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 7 Marcos Kremer, 6 Pablo Matera (c), 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 4 Franco Molina, 3 Eduardo Bello, 2 Ignacio Ruiz, 1 Thomas Gallo
Bench: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Efrain Elias, 20 Tomas Lavanini, 21 Joaquin Oviedo, 22 Lautaro Bazan Velez, 23 Tomas Albornoz
All Blacks selections
A locking department with 11 test starts worth of experience is the main talking point, closely followed by Ethan Blackadder's elevation to starting blindside. Wallace Sititi will close the game out in the loose forwards, which will be a good building block, while Savea's decision-making will be important in the early stages at least. Anton Lienert-Brown certainly deserves his spot in the midfield, however it may mean a shift in focus for Rieko Ioane as a potential utility role alongside Will Jordan on the bench.
Photo: Matt Impey / www.photosport.nz
Pumas selections
The loose forwards will be key if the Pumas are to have any shot, with Juan Martin Gonzalez, Marcos Kremer and Pablo Matera no strangers to the All Blacks. Santiago Carreras is a perfectly serviceable first five but will need to show a bit more if the likes of Santiago Chocobares and Matias Moroni are going to get any space to operate. Contepomi has a big task ahead of him to raise the Pumas' game significantly from where they've just been against France and Uruguay.
Rodrigo Bruni is tackled by Ardie Savea during the Rugby World Cup semi-final match between Argentina and New Zealand at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. Photo: AFP / Franck Fife
What they're saying
"We've got a big six-foot-eight lock coming in and a six-foot-nine lock on the bench. They're good athletes. When someone retires someone gets an opportunity, so it's their opportunity. We set them up the best we can to perform and they've done it themselves, too, they've owned their roles. Now it's their time on Saturday night so they can keep the jersey." - All Black coach Scott Robertson.
"There are many things to improve and we know that at the beginning of the Rugby Championship things are not going to go perfectly, but we will try to evaluate ourselves and try to improve game by game." - Pumas coach Felipe Contepomi.
Past results
All Blacks 44 - 6 Pumas
All Blacks 41 - 12 Pumas
All Blacks 53 - 3 Pumas
While much has been made about the historic Pumas win in Christchurch in 2022 - and rightly so - it doesn't change the fact that since then, the All Blacks have completely dominated the fixture. The last outing was one way traffic despite it being a World Cup semi-final, which would've been an even bigger victory had the All Blacks not taken the foot off the gas pedal with half an hour to go.
Prediction
Even with the issues that the All Blacks have had in Wellington recently, it's hard to see them dropping this one. It's not that the Pumas are particularly bad, more that the All Blacks are due for a performance where everything clicks. The locking situation could well be a chance for both Darry and Vaa'i to stake their claim, other wise the likes of Blackadder, Papali'i and Savea are going to have to do some serious blue collar work to cover their inexperience.
This one will be won by a burst of try scoring at some point in the second half by the All Blacks, perhaps when Will Jordan is injected into the game. If the All Blacks can maintain some sort of arm's length going into the break, surely the tempo can be controlled, and the Pumas overrun by superior skill - like what happened the last time they met.
