All Blacks claim inaugural Championship,,,

New Zealand claimed the first Investec Rugby Championship with a stunning 54-15 win over Argentina in La Plata on Sunday (NZT).
  It was the performance the side had been threatening throughout the Championship and was too much for the home side's defences to cope with and was the best effort the side has achieved in their seven Tests on Argentinian soil surpassing the 36-6 win in 1991.

The outside backs, especially wings Julian Savea and Cory Jane enjoyed the freedom achieved scoring five tries between them while first five-eighths Dan Carter's steadiness kept the pressure on the home side throughout.

Captain Richie McCaw thrived on another challenge, a rare appearance in Argentina and led the side to show the home town fans why the All Blacks were world champions and what the home team must aspire to in their future development.

No.8 Kieran Read was again instrumental in support play and running the ball back while there was unrelenting support whenever the All Blacks ran the ball.

Argentina enjoyed a lively start to the game, but the pace the All Blacks played at took its toll.

Halfback Martin Landajo had an outstanding game for the home team and fullback Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino and centre Marcelo Bosch were dangerous runners. While there was intent in the home side, their defences were less effective in the dry weather conditions and they were unable to produce the quality exhibited in their first game in Wellington.

Showing a much greater willingness to run the ball than in the first encounter in Wellington, Argentina had early reward when scoring the first try of the game after a clean lineout take. Employing miss out moves to get the ball wide quickly, Argentina created space for Amorosino to race onto the ball at speed.

He evaded McCaw's cover tackle and raced ahead to be taken by wing Julian Savea. However, the ball was cleared quickly for Landajo to race away to score in the eighth minute.

However, the lead was short-lived as Argentina paid the price for not getting support up the sideline for a clearing kick by Juan Martin Hernandez as the quick throw was taken creating room for wing Cory Jane to take the ball forward on the flank. The ruck developed and from the base second five-eighths Ma'a Nonu acting as halfback ran straight up the middle to split the defence and pass to halfback Aaron Smith for the try under the posts in the 15th minute.

Carter showed he was over his calf injury with a stunning break through the midfield soon after and was just stopped when his ankles were clipped but in the resulting play Argentina was penalised and Carter landed the penalty goal.

Back on attack, the All Blacks dropped two players from a lineout to create the close quarter diversion and left wing Jane ran across in support to be tackled on the right. From the ruck the ball was cleared to Read running onto the ball at full speed. He cut back to the short side and found Jane on the sideline with his pass for the wing to score on his opposite flank.

Hernandez landed a 26th minute penalty goal to post 100 points in Test matches but from the restart Carter landed his second penalty goal to extend the lead to 20-8

In the 30th minute the All Blacks avoided punishment after an attempted chip kick by flanker Liam Messam was caught by Argentina and moved to the right but the ball spilled loose in a tackle and Savea was able to toe it ahead, kick it again over the line and win the race to the touchdown.

Savea was in again after a classic All Blacks build-up with the ball moved left and right in sweeping moves across the field. Read was again prominent, along with Nonu, in getting the ball over the advantage line and with quick clearance Carter was able to put the charging Savea over in the corner.

Argentina started the second half with an impressive display of forward power as they took advantage of several penalty opportunities conceded by the All Blacks and finally in the 47th minute wing Gonzalo Comacho burst away from a ruck to score.

But that merely serve to boost the All Blacks' appetites. At a penalty conceded by the Pumas, they kicked for the corner then executed their own rolling maul with firstly McCaw taking the ball to the line and then prop Tony Woodcock. When the ball was released Savea came back on the cut, held his feet and flicked the pass to Jane who scored.

Just to prove their control and dominance the All Blacks put all their substitutes on by the 55th minute and from a lineout straight afterwards, replacement five-eighths Aaron Cruden ran through a gap, flicked the ball to Nonu and he raced away to score.

The final touch came in the last minute when Jane completed an intercept try to record a hat-trick.

Only one more game remains for the side, against the Springboks in Pretoria, in a week.

Scorers:

Argentina 15 (Martin Landajo, Gonzalo Comacho tries; Juan Martin Hernandez con, pen) New Zealand 54 (Aaron Smith, Cory Jane 3, Julian Savea 2, Ma'a Nonu tries; Dan Carter 3 con,2 pen; Aaron Cruden 2 con, pen). HT: 8-32

Sasu

Congrats to the All Blavks

= they really played brilliantly and it did shpw what a differene Dan Carter mde to their performance/  

cheers mikey, i rate the pumas, but i always said that wellington weather kept the All Blacks out of the game.

gotta say im really confident about next week too, ive never thought the Boks wernt a challenege, but theres something very special about the All Blacks at the moment.

spot on with carter, he does make a huge difference and now im starting to get a little worried about the post carter era, but hopefully cruden finds his consistent good form, once the best ever flyhalf to ever grace the game hangs up his boots and dosent cast the All Blackest of shadows, lol.

very happy with nonus contribution today, were going to need a performance like that to win in soccer city, but that combintaion with carter which has been forged in battle over the years has paid dividens and contributed to nonus performance, which was good, cos mr reliable conrad smith was below his usual standards.

my man of the match would have to be between nonu, read and savea, but read would probably take it for me, his efforts especially early on when the pumas again fronted up for a battle in the early stages really set the tone for the All Blacks control.

all in all a great team effort, but the hardest challenge is coming up and im feeling very good about it, 20 points victory good in fact. :o)
 

cheers mikey, i rate the pumas, but i always said that wellington weather kept the All Blacks out of the game.

gotta say im really confident about next week too, ive never thought the Boks wernt a challenege, but theres something very special about the All Blacks at the moment.

spot on with carter, he does make a huge difference and now im starting to get a little worried about the post carter era, but hopefully cruden finds his consistent good form, once the best ever flyhalf to ever grace the game hangs up his boots and dosent cast the All Blackest of shadows, lol.

very happy with nonus contribution today, were going to need a performance like that to win in soccer city, but that combintaion with carter which has been forged in battle over the years has paid dividens and contributed to nonus performance, which was good, cos mr reliable conrad smith was below his usual standards.

my man of the match would have to be between nonu, read and savea, but read would probably take it for me, his efforts especially early on when the pumas again fronted up for a battle in the early stages really set the tone for the All Blacks control.

all in all a great team effort, but the hardest challenge is coming up and im feeling very good about it, 20 points victory good in fact. :o)
 

Men against boys. The ABs punished every Bargie mistake ruthlessly. Next week should be fun to watch.

 I agree Moz, but I saw enough in both games to suggest the Boks will still be favourites for this match.

Sasu

I would not put any moneyon either team for Saturdays game.   What is evident from yesterdyas game of the All Blacks is that the All Black superior forward display allows for looser play by Reid - but will he get that opportunity in the game next week?   Unlikely that that would happen - since I still believe that the All Black forwards will be under severe pressure on Saturday - they were in Dunedin - and that is unlikely to change.

The other problem for the All Blacks is the likelihood that there would be so many handling errors that could be exploited by the All Blacks as was the case yesterday.Taking into account the way the Springboks played yesteday - as well as the All Black performance yesterday and the Dunedin test - I still think that the Springboks will win by 10+ points.

Although the All Blacks won all the tests they played in this year - there is a tendency noticeable - namely they in some tests play superb rugby and in other tests they do not really live up to expectations.   The All Blacks had a superb game against the Irish in the first test - and a really lucky win in the second test - followed by another superb game in the third test.   They also had a relatively average game in the first test against the Wallabies - followed by another convincing win against them in the seond test.   They had a very lucky win in Dunedin - followed by a reasonable performance against the Pumas.   Yesterday they were superb again - but what is going to happen next week is another question.

Not that the Springboks did not have much of a different season at all.   Against the POMS - and in particular in the thrid test - there were serious question marks about player selection and that remianed in the tests played in Mendoza and the other away tests.   I sincerely believe that the selections were at fault in the poor games played by them this year.  However, there was some signs of recovery and improvement in their game.    Meyer did well to make key changes - namely to remove Morne Steyn and bring in Louw and Vermeulen.  The latter two players caused problems for the All Blacks  in Dunedin - where Vermeulen in fact performes better than Reid and Louw gave McCaw a run for his money (you probably won't agree on the latter statements - but I really believe that was the case)

On the other hand I am not sure the All Blacks would know how to deal with Goosen at all.   Although he obviously  suffered from a nervous start - he still was a handful for the Wallabies and with more experience will also be more so for the All Blacks.       If there was anything to criticize about the All Blacks performance yesterday - it was some defensive lapses - at least three as I counted them.  

The All Black wings yesterday had superb games - especially pounding on Argentinian handling errors and poor kicks.   They will not have that advantatge on Saturday and they will also have to contend with Habana.   I am only sorry that Pietersen will not be available on Saturday.  

That leaves me with the contention that  I still rate the Springbok chances of winning by 10+ points.

 Well done AB's, another year, another trophy. Thats what counts and you got the job done.

Looking forward to the game this weekend, I would have loved the AB's to lose to the Argies simply because that would mean the Boks vs AB's would have been the final and there is nothing better than a final atmosphere to a game to see who has the temperament.

I reckon what the AB's needed was a close game with the Argies because next weekend wont be so loose and playing on the high veld is very unpleasant when you running out of steam and the game is tight. It might be difficult for the AB's to adjust to a "tight" game against a confident Bok team in just 1 week but whatever happens, its gona be a cracker!

@clevermike,

i think my 20pt comment was a mixture of a euphoric reaction to the ABs win and a lack of sleep, after a bit of rest and a little logic, ive knocked it down to a 8 point win to the All Blacks, lolz, :o)

that was a much better performance from the All Black forwards, especially considering the last two tests against the pumas and the Boks they failed to assert themselves and struggled to gain parity, but i always knew they were a 30pt better team then the pumas and IMHO, that weather they faced is what kept the All Blacks from running away with it in wellington and kept the pumas in.
the performance against the Boks in dunedin on the other hand was also what i expected, a tight gruelling affair as while many had written of the Boks, the All Blacks have a way of getting the best out of them, the same goes with the wallabies.
theres something about NZs SANZAR bros that make them lift their performance when facing the All Blacks and thats why i thought the Boks played as well as they did, but one of the characteristics of a champion team is being able to win even when theyre outplayed. also im not saying they were dominated, but it was IMO 60-40 in favour of the Boks that night.

ive been the first here and elsewhere to say that the All Blacks have been well below their usual standards in the IRC, even with our 22-0 domination over the wallabies we still had plenty of unforced errors in the game with at least 3 tries we bungled up, so there really is a case of which All Black team will rock up to soweto.
but the All Blacks being the All Blacks, IMO they will bring their A game, it might be hostile territory, but with the experinnce weve got brimming everywhere and the form of individuals, im really really confident of an AB victory.

the thing with the way the Boks played last night, it was very easy plan to figure out, Bok forwards bullied the wallaby forwards all night long, i was very one dimensional IMO, but also very effective against a wallabies who not only missed players, but had no heart or pride (never easy when ur teams colour is YELLOW, :P) so they really were ripe for the picking.
if the Boks think they can dominate the ABs like that, then theyre in for a rude awkening at soccer city, the one of ball carries and power runs will be stopped by the ABs and the All Blacks explosive runs will in turn test the Boks, especialy around the fringes which is what the wallabies didnt do last night.
the Bok backs took their chances feeding of the confidence their forwards muscled and theres nothing deadlier then a confident habana, except a determined McCaw, :P
goosen was nervous but very sound. and while the All blacks might not be familiar with his game, the All Blacks often comment about not worrying too much about what the others are doing, u can only focus on what u can control so they will going through the motions and concentrating on their game.
i do wonder how goosens nerves will be in soccer city when facing the old enemy in front of 90,000 of his countrymen, it will be the biggest game of his short but impressive rugby career and as we all saw with his first kicks at goal, hes not immune to a touch of nerves.
if i was hansen, i would get the lossies to concntrate their defnesive efforts on goosen and not give him an ounce of breathing room, cos he looks deadly on attack. i would apply the same tactics used aginst cooper in the RWC on goosen and really test him out, but to be prepared for him to not only pass it with flying colours, but to really flip it around on them, cos hes the most promising flyhalf i have ever seen from SA.

All Black wingers were awesome last night,  and i agree they wont get the same amount of chances, but they have proven throughtout the year and in janes case throughout his career, that they really are a complete package, capable of finishing attacks as well as starting them and the entire outside backs are very solid under the highball.
the only thing i can see working in favour of the Boks, is if hansen changes savea to hosea gear. gears still solid, but saveas in form and has a hungrier attitude then his highlanders counterpart.

no sane man would bet on the soweto test, for it can go either way, but ive been looking forward to this game since dunedin, cos i already thought then pumas would get a hiding in argentina, and given the Boks havent won any of their away games in 2012 and the All Blacks have won all of theirs, i feel comfortable with my 8pt victory to the ABs. either way its going to be a ripper, but fingers crossed it ends up like the last AB/Boks soccer city test, :o)
 

Sasu

I know you are correct by your comments on the All Blacks trying to up their game against the Springboks - but not entirely convinced that it is possible for the forwads to really dominate the Springboks the way they did Argentina last night.   There are various issues here.   The likelihood of the All Blacks getting control in line out situations - without contrvention of the laws - is to my mind zero.   There is also a very real chance that they may lose possession of line-outs from own throws - so that is also a problem.   I do not really rate any of the All Black locks as line out stars - especially not Whitelock and Retallick.    In any event Bekker and Etzebeth is far better than the combination the All Blacks faced in Dunedin.  

The question therefore is -what is the position of the loosies.   Can the All Blacks dominate against the Springbok combination of Alberts, Vermeulen and Louw.   You may think so - but based on the Dunedin test I would say no they can't.  

In general as to forward play - again based on the Dunedin test - I would say the Springboks will have a distinct edge over the All Blacks in that Department.

Then we got to the backline.   In the past the All Blacks loosies had an easy game with Morne Steyn around - they had nothing to fear from him attack wise and could in fact concentrate there efforts to nullify Francois Steyn.   If they now have to deviate from that and concentrate their efforts on Goosen - they are going to leave gaps further out and there were already lapses in the All Black defence in evidence - even in the Puma game.       Conrad Smith especially is not all that good a defender.    It is very likely that such an approach will be foreseen and catered for in Meyer's planning of the game and counter-measures taken.    In any event I do believe - that despite his youth and inexperience - Goosen is good enough to deal with such a defensive strategy - and if the All Blacks really go for that - they will not be as successful as you believe.   Goosen knows most of the All Black loosies from the Super 15 games and he is going to nullify them like he did in most of  those games if they try that kind of defensive mechanism.

I still think that the All Black wings are extremely good under high balls kicked at them and from loose play - but they are not clever players like Habana is.   Am disappointed by what I saw from Hougaard on the wing.   In summary I would give the All Blacks the edge insofar as backline play is concerned.  

Ultimately there is a major need for improvement in their goal kicking ability on the part of the Springboks.   if they do - and the continous  infractions forced onto the forwards by the Springbok forwards - will be a major factor in the outcome of the game.   I am sure the All Blacks are not going to have th lucury of 7 missed kicks at goal - which they had in Dunedin.   

In assessing the expected game I think the home town advantage will give the Springboks the edge.    Even though I recognize there superior experience and game temperament - they are not really without errors in performance and there forwards are bound to give away enforced penalties as was the case in Dunedin

I think cruz has been emailing you his thoughts hehe - great post with legitimate points

I have one question - the ABs  were lambasted for a "fools gold" attempt to beat the Argies out wide in NZ. They reconfigured and adapted their play and their running lines were superb 7 try resutl, they learnt their lesson.

Do you think they will adapt again and learn further lessons of there game against how they played the Boks in Dunedin? I would put my  house on it that they will? Do we take the same approach we did in Dunedin knowing full well that the AB's will be a lot better prepared second time around?

However I do worry that you are throwing a heap of expectation on Goosen lets not put the cart before the horse just yet. No doubt the Wallaby game saw him develop even further but we will be facing a full strenght AB team and you need to keep this in check particuarly after the fact that 54 points aginst the Argies at home is by far a telling message than 31 points against a Wallaby team on our turf?

Point to remeber the first game against the Wallabies the score was 27 -19 second game 22 nil

Argentina 21 - 5 second game 54 - 15

SA 21  - 11 second game ?????

What Im trying to say Mike is that they adapt and as I have always said all along they are an intelligent team and you may have the wood over them in a game or two but if you dont take your chances then trust me they will and I believe they would have also done as much homework on our game also as you heard Richie Macaw say in his aftermatch that they had watched the Bok game. They subbed four of there key players at the 60 minute mark tahts confidence to do that and a slight bit arrogant if you ask me.

radtad

In theory you are correcct -my problem is in practice how are they going to improve their forward play.   In Dunedin they were not good at all - I can remember the Springboks on two occassions without too much difficulty walk 20 meters or more with the All Backs in maul situations.   Without breakinh the lw - they found it impossible to stop it.   That is not a very good sign.   How are they going to improve on their line out play - with only Romano, Whitelock and Retallick available?     How are they going to improve general forward play if they were really forced into conceeding numerous penalties like they did in Dunedin?   It is nice to say that they can adjust their game plan to overcome the forward problem - but they can only do that effectively if they have the players to do that.   The one player that really had a poor  day in Dunedin was Reid.   Yes he can improve on the day - but he is likely to end up giving away more penalties than McCaw did.   In the other cases they cannot.

The point I raised about Goosen is that he can evade single-minded attempts to tackle him - and I am sure he will.   His presence require from the All Blacks a completely different defence style than they dd in the case of Morne Steyn - what I say that will reduce their effectiveness in wider defence.  

Finally the only real thing they can do is to attack the Springboks in the channell - but I have my doubts whether such a change will be effective.   That can be done - but will it not be easier to counter than attacks wider out?

The other thing about subbing four of their key players is also not really saying much..   They were subbed not because they had the upper hand - they were subbed because their performance was not up to standard - big difference in that.    Unfortunately the Springboks also subbed and brpought on Greyling to help the All Blacks out.   The All Blacks will not have that advantage on Saturday.

Mikey,

Geez mate their are some trains of thoughts you have that just dont make sense and I am not here to always be hagging on about the failiures of the Boks but my train of thoughts whether we like it or not is to challenge why we have not been able to live up to all the hype we throw at the Boks and simply put - our record is no better than the Wallabies who have Rugby as probably their 3rd major sport behind Leauge and cricket let alone comparing it against the AB's

They already improved their forward play as they completey monstered an Argie 8 pack that stood fast against all before so unsure what your stating? Dunedin is Dunedin and if you think that the AB's will make the same mistake twice then you havent been watching the RC close enough my friend.

The Boks strengths are rucks and mauls and that has always been an area that all teams have struggled to beat us on but it wont win us the game simply because it is too one track and we need moreto beat these guys. There lineout play hows been probably the best of all teams in the RC and I am unsure why you are even mentioning an area such as this particuarly that we struggled in the Dunedin game with 4 lineout losses and three not straights??????

Pressure builds mistakes and penalties will be conceeded from both sides. Whether or not you can pick out a player such as Reid who will concede more than his fair share is not a sound judgement and I would pick MaCaw as more the person to give away than Reid. However the issue at the moment is we do not have the kicking quality to convert the penalties into points which in turn takes away the pressure that we built up.

As you saw against the Argies "fools gold" wasnt chased twice thay changed their running lines and the Argies didn't have the capability to counter that threat and as I said before to beat them and put up 50 plus is a massive statement to SA that they will be coming with nothing left unturned - and we better turn up or we coukld easily fall into thinking that what we done previously could work a second time? In my mind that would be "fools gold" by the Boks.

Carter, MaCaw, Smith and Franks were subbed simply to be saved for the Bok clash that's pretty smart in my books and they were 35 points on the board so subbed for not performing is something that brotherbeen would say not something from you Mike? 

As for Greyling he is the reason SA rugby remains at 3rd place because we have these types of players constantly being in the mix of the Bok fraternity - We just keep picking them thats not to intelligent in my books.