Sam Cane out six weeks but All Blacks bench shines

The All Blacks may face a greater test of their post-World Cup development when they play Argentina in the Rugby Championship on Saturday than they have in five tests since they became world champions last November.

The scoreline hardly reflected the first 50 minutes of the game when the Pumas put the world champions under huge pressure before Steve Hansen’s side found another gear.

Although New Zealand are in a rebuilding phase after losing more than 800 caps worth of experience following their World Cup success 10 months ago, coach Steve Hansen does not see the Pumas encounter as a time for experimentation.

New Zealand was hardly stretched in three June tests against Wales – coached by new British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland – and in its first two tests of the Rugby Championship against a mediocre Australia.

Meanwhile, the Wallabies have snapped a six-Test losing streak to revive their Rugby Championship campaign with an encouraging 23-17 win against South Africa.

However the Pumas too bring with them some deft offloads and a backline of players who love to run with ball in hand.

“We were looking at ourselves a little bit, I would say, coming in at half-time”. “We had a great start but the discipline cost us and kept us on the back foot”.

The All Blacks coaches were forced to go to their bench earlier than meant to inject a spark into a lethargic performance and that worked with the burst of four tries through the middle of the second hafl.

New Zealand: Ben Smith, Israel Dagg, Malakai Fekitoa, Ryan Crotty, Julian Savea, Beauden Barrett, Aaron Smith, Kieran Read (captain), Sam Cane, Jerome Kaino, Sam Whitelock, Brodie Retallick, Owen Franks, Dane Coles, Joe Moody. We regathered our thought processes, went back out and were a lot more effective in our roles and executing the jobs we needed to do.

Argentina held the lead three times in the first spell.

“(It) gave us experience which was important to many of us to confront the different styles in different countries and gave us awareness of another pace of play and helped develop confidence”, the loose forward said.

“I think we might have been reading our own press the way we played that first half”, Hansen said.

The frustration of halfback Aaron Smith – the best No 9 in the world by some distance – was also something new for them to contend with, but they found the answers in the end, cruising to a 57-22 victory.