Pumas posts its first home win over All Blacks to create a tight Championship

Argentina’s Los Pumas Pablo Matera is tackled by New Zealand’s All Blacks Fletcher Newell

Argentina 29, N.Zealand 23

The Pumas broke out of a 13-13 halftime deadlock to score 16 second half points and to beat the All Blacks 29-23 in the second Rugby Championship test Saturday, for its first win over New Zealand in Argentina.

Santiago Carreras kicked three second penalties, including a long-range effort which gave Argentina a nine-point margin with seven minutes to play. Scrumhalf Gonzalo Garcia scored his first test try in the 59th minute as the Pumas took the match away from New Zealand for an historic home victory.

The All Blacks scored a try through hooker Samisoni Taukei’aho to cut Argentina’s lead to six points at 26-20 before Carreras made their lead secure with his third penalty of the match. Damian McKenzie kicked a late goal to allow the All Blacks to claim a bonus point and retain top spot on the Rugby Championship standings after two rounds.

New Zealand won the first test last weekend 41-24 and now all four teams in the Rugby Championship have one win and one loss after South Africa’s win over Australia earlier Saturday.

Argentina dominated the All Blacks both in territory and possession, kept the ball in hand for long periods and conclusively won the aerial battle.

The All Blacks’ back play was disorganized and their discipline poor. They had three yellow cards, finishing the first half with 13 men and the match with 14.

“First of all we believe that we can win. We’ve believed that for a few years now,” Argentina captain Julian Montoya said in a television interview. “We came back from a tough loss last game and I think that we kept in the fight and we threw a few punches.

The All Blacks only got on top of the Pumas in a five minute period in the first half when they scored tries through Billy Pollard and Fletcher Newell to lead 13-6. Otherwise they were outplayed and questions must now be raised over coaching and selections.

Argentina scored a first half try through Juan Martin Gonzalez. Center Santiago Chocobares was outstanding for the Pumas for his ball carrying in midfield.

Beauden Barrett at flyhalf had another poor performance and his kicking game was ill-judged. The captain Scott Barrett again was ineffective in his leadership.

For the first 15 minutes, the All Blacks had little usable ball in Argentina territory while the Pumas, camped in the All Blacks half, carried strongly and used accurate recoverable kicks.

In the 20th minute, the All Blacks kicked to touch from a penalty. From the lineout, they first probed the blindside through Tupou Vaa’i and Codie Taylor, then the middle of the field through Ardie Savea and Ethan de Groot.

The ball went wide to Rieko Ioane who was tackled in the corner and replacement scrumhalf Finlay Christie popped the ball up to Proctor who scored his third test try.

In the 25th minute, tighthead prop Newell got up from a scrum and managed to join on the end of a wide attack to take Ardie Savea’s pass from scrumhalf and score. The All Blacks led 13-6.

The Pumas came back strongly, backing their scrum which became a launch pad for attacks.

The All Blacks had looked rattled but the bench made an impact and Taukei’aho’s try from a lineout drive narrowed Argentina’s lead to six points. MDT/AP