Argentina have pulled off a huge upset in the opening game of the Rugby Championship, beating the heavily-fancied All Blacks 38-30 at Sky Stadium in Wellington.
The Pumas, who were the last team to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand back in 2022, were not expected to pose much trouble for the All Blacks, who were fresh off a 3-0 start to the season after a series win against England and a victory against Fiji in San Diego.
After an arm-wrestle of a first 15 minutes, the All Blacks were the first team to strike with a peach of a try that began in their own 22. All Blacks’ #10 Damian McKenzie pulled out a brilliant chip kick which he regathered and passed to fullback Beauden Barrett, who in turn put in a kick of his own. Lock Sam Darry, making his first start for the All Blacks, was the first to collect the ball and slammed it down for the opening try.
The Pumas struck back 8 minutes later after inspirational captain Pablo Matera put number 12 Santiago Chocobares through a glaring hole in the All Blacks’ defence, who then passed to his midfield partner Lucio Cinti to race away to score. The try went unconverted, but a penalty soon after from Argentine #10 Santiago Carreras closed the scores to 10-8.
There was still two more tries to come in what was a scintillating first half of rugby, with Anton Lienert-Brown scoring for the All Blacks off lovely work from McKenzie before Pumas winger Mateo Carreras hit back two minutes later after gathering a tap back from All Blacks winger Sevu Reece then going on a mesmerising run to the try line.
Argentina, down 15-20 at the break, struck just two minutes into the second half as lock Franco Molina forced his way over after a lovely set play at the lineout. S. Carreras converted to give the Pumas the lead for the first time in the contest at 22-20 and suddenly the All Blacks were on the back foot. After trading a pair of penalties, the All Blacks scored via wing Mark Tele’a, despite being down to 14 men with Ethan Blackadder sin binned for a marginally high tackle on Pumas reserve prop Joel Scalvi.
With the score at 30-28 to New Zealand, the game was turned on it’s head once again after two horrible passes from Ardie Savea and Mckenzie forced the All Blacks back into their own in-goal and gifted the Pumas a golden opportunity with a scrum 5m from the All Blacks’ try line. The Pumas duly punished the All Blacks, with former captain and most capped Argentine player of all time, 39 year-old Augustin Creevy, crashing over under the sticks to give his team the lead with 10 minutes to go.
The All Blacks tried their best to score another try but Argentina held firm, sealing the win with a penalty kick with two minutes to go to secure a famous victory in the capital and sparking wild celebrations at the final whistle. The All Blacks meanwhile must go back to the drawing board with Scott Robertson tasting defeat for the first time as All Blacks head coach. The two sides meet again at Eden Park next Saturday in what will surely be a cracking encounter in Auckland.
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