Rugby Championship 2021 LIVE: New Zealand v Argentina, Australia v South Africa

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A flashback to an amazing match 10 months ago

I was lucky enough to be at Bankwest Stadium when the Pumas beat the All Blacks 25-15 last year.

After 402 days without any international rugby, Argentina coach Mario Ledesma senses someone might write a book one day about his side’s 25-15 maiden victory over the All Blacks and how the side went “through hell” in the lead-up to its greatest ever Test win.

The stunning boilover will live long in the memory of those at Bankwest Stadium and Argentinians everywhere as Ian Foster’s All Blacks were humiliated in a manner rarely seen, orchestrated by old buddies Ledesma and Michael Cheika, who also worked alongside each other at the Wallabies.

With 28 minutes remaining, the world’s 10th-ranked side led the All Blacks and refused to let their foot off the pedal in a result that almost defied belief given what the team has been through in recent months.

A crowd of 9063 was treated to a masterclass from the tenacious Pumas, whose 25 points all came from No.10 Nicolas Sanchez.

READ THE MATCH REPORT FROM THAT HISTORIC MATCH

Argentina’s Santiago Carreras and head coach Mario Ledesma after the Pumas’ 25-15 win over New Zealand.Credit:Stu Walmsley/Rugby Australia

Some late team news for the All Blacks

All Blacks are sky high on confidence

New Zealand won their three Tests against Australia by an average margin of 20 points.

A few stats courtesy of Opta

Have flicked these across from the Opta stats packs we get sent from SANZAAR. Some interesting numbers worth pondering ahead of what should be a hotly contested match.

  • Argentina picked up a 25-15 win over New Zealand on 14 November 2020 – their first and only
    win against the All Blacks in 31 Tests (D1, L29). They were held scoreless in a 38-0 loss to New
    Zealand in their last encounter (28 November 2020).
  • New Zealand have won their last seven men’s Tests on the bounce by an average margin of 40
    points per game; the last time they won more in succession was a nine-game streak from
    November 2017 to September 2018 which included a 46-24 win over Argentina.
  • Argentina have won three of their five previous men’s Tests in Australia against teams other than the Wallabies (L2); although, they’ve won only one of three games against fellow Tier 1 opposition in that period.
  • New Zealand have had just 12 minutes and 53 seconds of possession per game in the 2021
    edition of The Rugby Championship, the lowest of any team in the competition. Despite this, they lead the competition in metres gained (615), clean breaks (15), and points scored (48) per game.

David Havili scores for the All Blacks against the Wallabies last week. Credit:Getty

Hello and welcome

Afternoon rugby fans.

Welcome to our Test rugby live blog. I’ll be taking the first game of the day, Argentina against New Zealand, before Sam Phillips continues the show rolling with live updates of Australia’s clash with South Africa.

Kick-off for the first game is at 5.05pm AEST, while game two is 8.05pm AEST.

You’d imagine New Zealand and South Africa will be victorious today but as we saw last year when the Pumas knocked off the All Blacks, nothing can be taken for granted.

Michael Hooper at Australian training on Saturday. Credit:Getty

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