Argentina stunned New Zealand with a 38-30 win away in Wellington as they outscored the All Blacks four tries to three in a dramatic start to the Rugby Championship.
It was only a third ever win for Los Pumas in 38 meetings with New Zealand, as Felipe Contepomi's side were rewarded for their adventurous spirit against a ragged-looking All Blacks, who were uncharacteristically error prone.
The lead changed several times before Argentina prevailed in an exciting encounter that was in stark contrast to New Zealand’s one sided 44-6 win when they last met in the World Cup semi-final in Paris last October.
Argentina’s tries came from Lucio Cinti, Mateo Carreras, Franco Molina and a poignantly decisive try for the 39-year-old Agustin Creevy.
Santiago Carerras converted three of the four tries, and added four penalties for a personal tally of 18 points.
New Zealand’s tries came from Sam Darry, Anton Lienert-Brown and Mark Tele'a with Damian McKenzie putting over three penalties and three coversions.
It was a typical piece of All Black ingenuity that saw the home side go over for the first try in the 15th minute as McKenzie chipped ahead in his own half and regained the ball before feeding out to Beauden Barrett, who kicked in-field for a chase that ended with a try for lock Darry.
Argentina stripped possession in the maul to set up their opening try eight minutes later, with captain Pablo Matera drifting across the line before popping a short pass up for Santiago Chocobares to burst through before Cinti finished off.
Lienert-Brown went over at the end of a line out drive in the 35th minute but two minutes later Sevu Reece’s tap back off a high ball sat up perfectly for Mateo Carreras to grab possession and speed over for a second Argentina try that brought the halftime score to 20-15.
The visitors went ahead three minutes into the second half with a try from Molina from a clever line out routine and Carreras converted to put Argentina 22-20 ahead.
The All Blacks' third try came in the 52nd minute as winger Tele'a slipped through and score under the posts.
New Zealand mistakes set up Argentina's fourth try, with two wayward passes from Ardie Savea and McKenzie leading to Rieko Ioane having to dot down behind his own line. From the resultant five metre scrum, Argentina set up a score for Creevy and went 35-30 up with 10 minutes left.
"It was amazing, it was a really good performance. We spoke in the week about hitting first and we did, we dominated the whole game. We deserved the result," said Creevy, whose six tries in 109 caps include four against New Zealand.
Argentina secured the win two minutes from the end with a Carreras penalty after the Kiwis were blown up for slowing down play.
"Hugely disappointing, we prepped all week to come here and get the win," said home skipper Savea.
"Full credit to Argentina, they stayed in the fight and kept us under pressure."
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
