Playing to win? Argentina didn’t do it by accident

Codie Taylor and Aaron Smith after the All Blacks 25-18 loss to Argentina in last weekend’s Rugby Championship game in Christchurch.
Photo: Photosport / John Davidson

Opinion – If Los Pumas did not play to win over the weekend, as one All Black has suggested, Ian Foster’s men are in for a rude awakening in Hamilton, writes Jamie Wall.

If social media could make a collective noise, it would have been a big sigh at 11:30am on Thursday. It was in reaction to the latest All Black team being announced. Fresh off an historic home loss to Argentina, Ian Foster stuck mostly with the same set of players, leading many to question just what the plan is – yet again.

Then, to make matters worse, some very poor key messaging came out of veteran halfback Aaron Smith. He claimed that “Argentina weren’t trying to win the game, they were just trying not to lose it. They used their defence for that and we played into their hands.”

This is pretty bewildering on a number of levels. At face value, it felt like he was bemoaning their opposition for not simply playing the way the All Blacks wanted them to. But really, what on earth was he expecting? The game plan the Argentineans ran was more or less identical to the one that beat the All Blacks two years ago, in a game that can now really be seen as an ominous portent of things to come.

Secondly, it gives a massive glimpse into just what the All Blacks are telling themselves. Complaining that a team play a certain way better not be the game plan moving forward. Rugby is about imposing your will on the other team, which is exactly what the Pumas managed to do despite having a rubbish scrum and even worse lineout.

However, the worst bit is Smith is actually right – but not exactly in the way he meant.

The one thing no one has really mentioned in the wake of the result is that the Pumas’ performance wasn’t even their best one of the year so far. It would be interesting to get Smith’s opinion of their dismemberment of the Wallabies in San Juan three weeks ago, when they ran in seven tries. On current form, if the Argentineans do “try to win the game”, the result is going to be far, far worse for the All Blacks.

And that, depressingly, is where we’re at. Eight players have been released to their provinces for the weekend, with Leicester Fainga’anuku, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Hoskins Sotutu and Tupou Vaa’i getting so little game time in the past two months this may as well count as an off season for them. Interestingly, Stephen Perofeta’s now infamous 50-second-long debut was enough to see him remain with the squad.

There seems to be a real lack of planning with the way the squad is being used, especially around Tuivasa-Sheck, who is now back with an Auckland team where he is probably still learning everyone’s names. NZ Rugby is getting an insanely low return on investment for him, which begs the question as to why his selection couldn’t wait until the end of year tour. Sotutu has cause to be miffed as well, with exactly zero chances to prove himself this year.

But back to the guys that will be playing for the All Blacks this Saturday. Loyalty has clearly played a large part in the selections, because apart from the starting front row, everyone made a decent case to get replaced for the game in Hamilton. Much, probably too much, has been made of Jason Ryan and Joe Schmidt’s addition to the coaching staff – but really their areas of responsibility didn’t reach their KPIs. The breakdown yielded penalties, the attack was only really effective when the All Blacks were doing one-out runners.

It will be interesting to see just how closely Foster sticks to his plan in this Saturday’s game. Will Samisoni Taukei’aho get hooked early in the second half again? Will the All Blacks turn down shots at goal? Will there be some sort of Plan B if the Pumas hit the lead after an hour again?

However, the main thing to watch out for is if Smith and the rest of the team realise that Argentina are playing to win – no matter how they go about it. In test matches, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to play. If tackling hard and kicking gives them the best chance of winning, then obviously that’s what they’re going to do.

And that is why the Pumas walked off the field winners last weekend.