How The All Blacks Turned To Plan B (And C) To Beat The Pumas

The Pumas deserve plenty of praise for playing the All Blacks at their own game, writes Scotty Stevenson, but the All Blacks proved yet again that they are the masters of adjustment.

Watch: All Blacks vs Argentina Full Game | Condensed

What was immediately obvious from the opening whistle in Saturday’s Rugby Championship test at Hamilton was that the Pumas had done their homework. The All Blacks, for so long the heavyweight champions at slowing down the opposition’s ruck ball, found themselves on the back foot at the breakdown as the Argentineans took the direct route at every available opportunity.

While the respective tackle counts suggest the All Blacks defence was as close to impenetrable as ever – they made 130 tackles and missed 13; the Pumas made 98 tackles and missed 26 – the truth was very few of the close-in tackles were dominant, allowing the Argentinean forwards to profit from extensive metres after contact. It is one stat not often accounted for in the game, but is one of the most important, given it reflects a side’s ability to make the gain line and thus set the offside line at the ensuing phase.

The net result of Argentina’s ability to claim metres in the tackle was to force New Zealand’s fringe forwards into a tighter game, negating their ability to roam wide and to then take advantage of counter attack opportunities. Once again, Jerome Kaino led all carriers in the New Zealand pack, with Kieran Read’s running game curtailed by his need to get involved in the breakdown defence.

It was a smart play from Argentina. As was their pressure on the New Zealand lineout, which produced its worst percentage return in two seasons. As we wrote last week, the All Blacks have been by far the best from lineout attack all year, but scored just one of their eight tries from the lineout on the weekend.

So far, so good for the Pumas. However, they aren’t the only side to have done their homework.

The All Blacks knew that while the rest of the world sees the Argentineans as a pack of tractors who love to scrum, their scrum is actually a major point of weakness. In fact, it’s the weakest scrum in the Rugby Championship, operating at just 82% so far in three tests, and turning over one tighthead per match. To put that in perspective, the All Blacks’ scrum operates at 95% success. That is exactly where they targeted the Argentineans.

The first try to Julian Savea was a simple eight-nine play augmented by a scorching dummy run from Ryan Crotty. It was ostensibly a training ground move done well and the Pumas’ read on the play (especially given Savea had broken early, telegraphing the whole damn thing) was terrible. Twice more in the match the All Blacks launched successful attacks off the scrum. Before the weekend’s test they had not scored a single try from the scrum. By the final whistle on Saturday night they had scored three.

They had also scored three more tries from kick returns. Quite why the Argentineans went away from their ball-in-hand game plan is a mystery. For much of the match it seemed they had figured out that giving Ben Smith free possession is a catastrophic error. They finished the game with just 15 kicks in play, but even that number (well down on their average against South Africa) was too high given their kicking game was inaccurate at best.

Truth is, the All Blacks, who have out-kicked every team they have played this year, made their kicks count. Tries to Beauden Barrett and Luke Romano came directly from out-of-hand kicks, and three more came from misdirected Pumas kicks.

These are important things to note, for what they tell us is the All Blacks have plan B, plan C and probably plan D. That is what makes them so hard to contain. With the lineout struggling they opted for scrum. With their breakdown defence under pressure, they opted to reduce the offensive workload of their big ball runners. With the big ball runners out of the backline, they used Ben Smith often and effectively on the edge. With a lack of turnover ball, they drew the kick and ruthlessly attacked from the back. And with the Argentineans finally running out of either conviction or energy or both, they managed to blitz them in a 12-minute burst that showcased every element of their play.

There is one other moment in this match that is worth discussing. It happened in the 48th minute, with Argentina camped inside the All Blacks 22-metre line. Twice denied an early second half try through smart All Blacks defence (Kieran Read turning Maradona with a Hand of God play, and Israel Dagg counter rucking – counter rucking!) the Argentineans opted to take a shot at goal.

NEVER OPT TO TAKE A SHOT AT GOAL WHEN YOU HAVE THE ALL BLACKS ON THE ROPES!

Let this be a lesson. Though the shot was successful, those were the last points the Argentineans scored in the match. The All Blacks immediately made changes (and when was the last time you saw either Aaron Smith or Dane Coles subbed before the final quarter) and produced their best 30 minutes of running rugby this season.

What is so disheartening for the opposition is not the final score (the All Blacks fifth highest total ever against the Argentineans, and conversely Argentina’s highest ever total against the All Blacks) but rather the All Blacks ability to adjust to circumstances.

The Argentineans largely prevented the All Blacks from scoring through their preferred methods on Saturday night (just one try was scored from lineout, and none from turnover ball) and yet they still leaked eight tries in the match. That is plain scary. That is masterful.

THREE NUMBERS THAT ARE PLAIN UGLY

• The Pumas have made just 81% of their tackles in the Rugby Championship. The Jaguares boasted the same tackle percentage in Super Rugby. Only the Kings were worse.
• Why are New Zealand goal kickers so bad? The All Blacks have made just 63% of their kicks in the Rugby Championship but the woes don’t stop there. In Super Rugby, with the exception of the Highlanders (5th) the New Zealand sides ranked 10th, 14th, 15th, and 17th in kick percentage.
• Australia (4) and South Africa (8) have combined for just 12 clean breaks per test this Rugby Championship. The Pumas (12.7) and All Blacks (17.3) have made more per test on their own.