All Blacks favourites but Pumas hopes high for historic win

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters): The All Blacks have never lost to Argentina but this weekend’s clash in Buenos Aires looks more balanced than their previous encounters and both teams have reason to believe they can record what would be momentous victory.

While a bonus point win would clinch a third successive Rugby Championship title for the world champions, a loss would be a first in 28 matches against the Pumas and condemn the All Blacks to their first back-to-back defeats since 2011.

Steve Hansen made has seven changes to the squad that lost 36-34 to South Africa last time out, including Sonny Boy Williams in the centres for the first time since June and naming Sam Whitelock as captain in place of the rested Kieran Read.

The All Blacks, as always, start as strong favourites and will be going all out at Velez Sarsfeld to make amends for their narrow defeat to the Springboks, a first in the championship since 2015.

“I think as players we were disappointed with how we performed (against South Africa) but I think the big one is we probably let ourselves down,” Ben Smith, who moves from the wing to fullback, told reporters.

“As players we are excited to get out there and show we are a better team.”

Argentina have made only two changes to the side that beat Australia on the Gold Coast two weeks ago, with Ramiro Herrera coming in at prop and centre Bautista Ezcurra joining a backline to allow Matias Moroni to play on the wing.

The win over the Wallabies added to their home victory over South Africa in August, the first time they have beaten two of their rivals in one championship since they started competing against the southern hemisphere’s rugby superpowers in 2012.

Under new coach Mario Ledesma, the Pumas have added more pace and flair to their traditional strength up front but they still lack depth and have struggled to see out matches from winning positions, especially against New Zealand.

They will have the backing of a raucous sellout crowd of 50,000 in the Buenos Aires suburb and coach Hansen is not taking them lightly.

“We’ve always been wary of them, they are a strong side physically but what we’ve seen I think change in them is the mindset in how they want to play the game,” Hansen said.

“I think they’ve decided that they’ve got backs of real calibre who can hurt you if they’re given opportunity to do so.

“They’ve come over and scored some good tries against us, so again taking confidence out of that. And then they beat Australia so they arrive on Saturday as a very confident team and that makes them dangerous.”

South Africa seek to back up shock win over All Blacks

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (Reuters): A surprise away win over New Zealand has provided a timely injection of enthusiasm into South African rugby when it seemed the Springboks were continuing the poor form that has beset them since finishing third at the last World Cup.

The shock 36-34 victory against the world champion All Blacks two weeks ago came after disappointing Rugby Championship results in Argentina and Australia, catapulting the Boks into contention in the southern hemisphere competition.

But if the Wellington win is to have any impact, they will have to beat the Wallabies in Port Elizabeth on Saturday to set up a potential decider for this year’s crown in a return against the All Blacks in Pretoria on Oct. 6.

The arrival of new coach Rassie Erasmus, and a 2-1 series win over England in June, suggested positive changes for the Boks after two miserable years in which they plummeted down the world rankings, losing to Italy and suffering a record 57-0 loss in New Zealand along the way.

But the new-found optimism quickly drained after Argentina beat them 32-19 in Mendoza last month and the Boks made some horror mistakes to go down 23-18 to the Wallabies in Brisbane.

However, after beating the All Blacks, the fervour is back and sellout crowds await the home team on Saturday at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and next weekend against New Zealand at Loftus Versfeld.

But there are still questions about South Africa’s consistency, as scrumhalf Faf de Klerk admitted.

 “We don’t want to be a team that beats New Zealand one week and then plays mediocre rugby the next,” he said.

It means having to put away the euphoria of a rare win over the All Blacks and concentrating on beating Australia, who are under pressures of their own.

The Wallabies’ loss at home to Argentina last time out was also a surprise and added to growing criticism of coach Michael Cheika, one year out from the World Cup in Japan.

Australia are bottom of the Rugby Championship standings, sitting on five points behind New Zealand (16), South Africa (10) and Argentina (8) and have won only two of their last nine games.

But they will be hoping to catch their hosts in over-confident mood and earn a win that will go a long way to boosting their confidence.