Wallabies eye Redemption against Springboks 30-years Insane Streak to end
It is absolutely hosing down at Eden Park, which probably won’t hurt the Pumas’ chances of repeating last weekend’s heroics.
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson has revamped his outside backs and lost a key prop in the wake of the shock 38-30 Rugby Championship loss to the Pumas in Wellington.
It was his first loss since taking the reins from Ian Foster and Robertson reacted by dropping centre Anton Lienert-Brown and wingers Sevu Reece and Mark Tele’a.
Lienert-Brown and Tele’a have found homes on the bench but Reece has been left out of the 23 completely.
Argentina has the chance to become the first team to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park in 50 Tests over 30 years in the second Rugby Championship match between the teams in Auckland on Saturday.
The Pumas convincingly beat the All Blacks in the first Test in Wellington last weekend and if they can repeat that performance while the All Blacks fail to improve, Argentina might become the first team since France in 1994 to beat New Zealand at their rugby headquarters.
New Zealand has made little improvement since its first Test of the season against England in July
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Coach Scott Robertson also has stuck with a very similar lineup in the four All Blacks Tests so far, except against Fiji in San Diego which allowed him to experiment.
Again Robertson has only tinkered with his lineup between the two Argentina Tests, making the most significant changes in the outside backs where he has brought in two new wingers and made a change at centre, reversing a change he made a week earlier.
New Zealand couldn’t match the physicality of the Pumas in Wellington.
The spirit of the Argentina team was manifest in the way in which their forwards crashed into breakdowns and in the ferocity of their defence.
Robertson believes the All Blacks forwards will be stirred into action by last weekend’s defeat.
“I think every All Black forward pack after a result like that wants a chance at redemption,” Robertson said.
“They’ve owned it, we all have. Getting out of our back fence (own 22) is really important and we’ve put time into it this week.”
Robertson will come under scrutiny if the All Blacks lose on Saturday.
Any Test loss falls heavily on the coach’s shoulders but a loss in Auckland would invite a particular backlash.
There were questions when Robertson was appointed over whether he had the scope of experience to become an All Blacks coach.
While he guided the Crusaders to seven consecutive Super Rugby titles, he had little experience outside the competition.
“You ask that question of yourself all day,” Robertson said of his position.
“The ability to coach simply is probably the first thing in our minds. We learned a lot last week so it’s about taking what we learned and putting it into action.”
Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi has made only one change to his lineup, recalling hooker Julian Montoya, who will resume the captaincy after recovering from a rib injury.
The Pumas have played at Eden Park only once, losing to the All Blacks in the quarter-finals of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Wallabies lock Lukhan Salakaia-Loto isn’t taking South Africa’s wholesale changes for the second Rugby Championship Test against his side too personally.
The Springboks made 10 changes to the starting lineup that beat the Wallabies 33-7 in Brisbane last week.
Among the players rested for Saturday’s Test in Perth are captain Siya Kolisi, props Frans Malherbe and Gerhard Steenekamp, hooker Bongi Mbonambi, halfback Cobus Reinach, winger Kurt-Lee Arendse, centre Damian de Allende and fullback Willie le Roux.
Flanker Ben-Jason Dixon and lock RG Snyman were ruled out with injuries.
Halfback Morne van den Berg and lock Ruan Nortje will earn their first Test starts for the world champion Springboks.
Although the bench has plenty of experience, there are only a combined 30 caps among positions one to five in the starting lineup.
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South Africa coach Rassie Erasmus played down talk that the changes were a sign of disrespect towards the Wallabies, saying he made the move to further develop his squad’s depth ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia.
“If you look at this team, there are 14 World Cup winners and there’s only two guys that are new caps,” Erasmus said.
“So this is not disrespect to Australia, and this is not us feeling nonchalant about the game.”
Salakaia-Loto, who has played 32 Tests for Australia, said he and his teammates don’t have any issues with their opponent’s overhaul.
“Look, it’s no disrespect at all,” he said.
“Their depth is a big reason why they’re back to back champs. The challenge for us is to come in and put in a much better performance than last week.
The Wallabies had two wins over Wales and a victory over Georgia to start Joe Schmidt’s reign as coach.
But the streak ended when the Wallabies were seriously outclassed in Brisbane.
How to fix the wounded Wallabies
“As players, we weren’t good enough,” Salakaia-Loto said.
“There were definitely some lessons learned. It’s been a tough week for us. We’ve just got to do our jobs better, individually and collectively.”
On Thursday, Schmidt recalled 59 Test veteran Marika Koroibete to the starting side in a revamped team.
Koroibete was named in the back three alongside Andrew Kellaway and Tom Wright for his first appearance since last year’s World Cup.
“There’s some continuity and freshness in this team after a very physical test last weekend,” Schmidt said.
“The reality is that we need to be more combative and accurate this Saturday.”