The All Blacks avenged their shock 38-30 defeat in Wellington the previous week with an emphatic display in Auckland as Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett ran Los Pumas ragged. New Zealand extended their 30-year unbeaten record at Eden Park by chalking up their 50th Test win in Auckland since they last lost at the iconic stadium back in 1994.
Jordan scored two of the All Blacks’ six tries on his return to the starting side as the Pumas were well and truly tamed.
What a difference a week makes. Argentina had few answers to give as the All Blacks tore into the Pumas with New Zealand captain Ardie Savea leading from the front while scrum-half TJ Perenara was a constant menace to the visitors’ defence.
“It’s been a long, but also a short week. There has been a lot going on,” said the All Blacks obviously relieved head coach Scott Robertson speaking on Sky Sports. “I am really proud of the efforts. I’m just so pleased for the whole team and staff.”
Skipper Savea had said all week that the All Blacks needed to channel the hurt from the defeat in Wellington to turn things around in Auckland and his side delivered.
“Very happy to get the win and respond the way we did,” Savea told Sky. “We said all week about looking ourselves in the mirror. For the All Blacks, we have to bring that every week. We can’t rely on a loss to get that response. It was about playing in the right areas of the field. I thought Damian and ‘Baz’ (Beauden Barrett) controlled the game really and allowed us forwards to roll up our sleeves and get to work. I’m proud of the boys tonight across the board.”
New Zealand started the rout early with fly-half McKenzie unlocking the Pumas defence in the opening exchanges with a deft chip. Savea plucked the ball out of the air, smashed his way out of two tackles, swatting away Santiago Carreras in the process, in an early statement of intent from the home side. It was soon clear that it was going to be a long night for the Pumas.
The All Blacks had struggled to cope with a blitz defence adopted by England during both Tests in New Zealand last month, then again in the shock defeat to Argentina. The problem was remedied in Auckland by chips over on rushing defenders. Jordie Barrett timed his deft copybook kick to perfection for the opening try by floating his chip over the Pumas’ midfield. McKenzie sprinted onto the bobbling ball in the space behind the defence to touch down, then convert his try.
Carreras landed a penalty for the visitors, but the All Blacks had their tails up.
Flanker Ethan Blackadder and hooker Codie Taylor combined to smash their way down the right flank, prop Tamaiti Williams was held up short when he tried to borrow over, before Savea picked up and hammered his way over for New Zealand’s second try.
The skipper then showed his running skills by delaying his pass to put Caleb Clarke over in the corner for the All Blacks third try in quick succession.
Perenara created the fourth try inside the opening half hour, darting off the back of a maul, beating two defenders with a delayed pass around the back of his tackler to Jordan, who took the pass single-handedly, hit the afterburners and sprinted over.
New Zealand claimed the bonus point for four tries with only 30 minutes played.
The All Blacks were scoring roughly a point a minute playing champagne rugby, despite the saturated conditions. Driving rain should have made handling a nightmare for both teams, but the All Blacks barely put a pass wrong. A superb one-handed pick up off the floor by McKenzie demonstrated the hosts’ confidence.
McKenzie, who was also flawless with his conversions, then showed off his timing by delaying his pass to perfection to put Beauden Barrett into space. The twice world player of the year needed no invitation to sprint clear of the Argentina defence as New Zealand chalked up five tries in the first half to effectively end the game as a contest.
It was Barrett’s 44th Test try, putting him in equal fifth place with Jeff Wilson, five tries behind Doug Howlett’s all-time record of 49 for New Zealand in international rugby.
The 35-3 half-time score told its own tale as New Zealand jogged to the changing rooms, while Argentina trudged off.
There was no let up to the wave of black-shirted attacks. The sixth try came just two minutes after the break when Savea picked up from the back of the scrum and carved a hole in the Argentina defence before releasing Jordan.
The fleet-footed Crusader was brought down short, but the ball was recycled and worked wide with Jordan sliding through a gap in the defence and using his strength and the slippery surface to ground his second try – his 33rd for the All Blacks in as many Tests.
Former captain Sam Cane came on for his 96th cap as the All Blacks made a raft of changes but couldn’t maintain the relentless pressure they exerted in the first half.
Cane was immediately in the thick of the action, helping to hold up the Argentina pack as the Pumas battered the All Blacks line. The hosts defence held firm until the 71st minute when full-back Juan Cruz Mallia crashed onto a pop pass and barrelled his way over for a consolation try converted by Carreras. The tempo dropped before Mallia touched down while the All Blacks finished with 14 men after replacement hooker Asafo Aumua was shown a late yellow card for a high tackle on Carreras.
“It was a great performance from the boys tonight,” said double-try scorer Jordan. “They wanted to start fast, start strong and we did that. I just tried to get involved a little bit. The first try was a great piece of play by TJ down the short side, unreal skills from him. There was some good shape in the second one, it was stuff we had worked on during the week, good to see it come out onto the park. We needed a win, and it was important that we did.”
Argentina captain Julián Montoya admitted his side came up well short.
“We weren’t good enough this week. We need to try to be consistent, week in, week out and we didn’t do it. We made a lot of mistakes, we need to be better. Congratulations to the All Blacks. They were quality today. We need to be better for the upcoming games.”
NEW ZEALAND: 42
TRIES: 6 (McKenzie 6’, Savea 17’, Clarke 24′, Jordan 30′, 42’, Barrett 36’)
CONVERSIONS: 6 (McKenzie 7’, 18’, 25’, 31’, 38’, 43’)
PENALTIES: 0
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 1 Aumua 76’
RED CARDS: 0
15. Beauden Barrett; 14. Will Jordan, 13. Rieko Ioane, 12. Jordie Barrett, 11. Caleb Clarke; 10. Damian McKenzie, 9. TJ Perenara; 8. Ardie Savea (captain), 7. Dalton Papali’i, 6. Ethan Blackadder; 5. Sam Darry, 4. Tupou Vaa’i; 3. Tyrel Lomax, 2. Codie Taylor, 1.Tamaiti Williams.
Replacements: 16. Asafo Aumua, 17. Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18. Fletcher Newell, 19. Josh Lord, 20. Sam Cane, 21. Cortez Ratima, 22. Anton Lienert-Brown, 23. Mark Tele’a
ARGENTINA: 10
TRIES: 1 (Mallia 71’)
CONVERSIONS: 1 (Albornoz 72’)
PENALTIES: 1 (Carreras 12’)
DROP GOALS: 0
YELLOW CARDS: 0
RED CARDS: 0
15. Juan Mallia; 14. Matias Moroni, 13. Lucio Cinti, 12. Santiago Chocobares, 11. Mateo Carreras; 10. Santiago Carreras, 9. Gonzalo Bertranou; 8. Joaquin Oviedo, 7. Juan Martin Gonzalez, 6. Pablo Matera; 5. Pedro Rubiolo, 4. Marcos Kremer; 3. Lucio Sordoni, 2. Julian Montoya (captain), 1. Thomas Gallo.
Replacements: Ignacio Ruiz, Mayco Vivas, Joel Sclavi, Tomas Lavanini, Franco Molina, Lautaro Bazan Velez, Tomas Albornoz, Bautista Delguy