What seems to have gone wrong for the All Blacks

All Blacks might want to look at making a changes at fly-half after their loss to Argentina.

New Zealand struggled to establish control of the game, especially in the latter stages, as they were stunned 38-30 by the South American outfit.

Los Pumas have now secured their third victory in four years against the All Blacks. Swiftly ending head coach Scott Robertson’s W3 L0 start as head coach and has found himself ubder pressure on ahead of the second clash in Auckland next weekend.

With Richie Mo’unga’s now playing in Japan since the 2023 Rugby World Cup, Robertson has ebtrusted Damian McKenzie with the fly-half position.

Despite showing some good touches in the opening four matches, the 29-year-old has not necessarily nailed down the jersey and Robertson admitted that he needs to improve in one key facet.

“Damian’s showed some really incredible class touches, like that chip kick,” the head coach told reporters.

“His short passing game’s really good and he will grow as a game manager, that’s the biggest area.”

Asked whether they would be sticking by McKenzie, Robertson responded: “Yeah, we are. You’ve got to back him, and he’s learning along the way.”

Unfortunately, McKenzie was involved in the key incident which cost them the match on Saturday as he exacerbated Ardie Savea’s errant pass by sending Rieko Ioane scampering towards his own line to pick up a loose ball.

It was a moment of madness from the fly-half, as well as Ardie Savea, who was captaining the team in the absence of Scott Barrett.

Robertson reflected on the number eight’s leadership style following the loss, with the result appearing to hit the current World Rugby Player of Year hard.

“He’s a quiet leader, and it did hurt,” he said. “He does his talking with his actions. He won’t say much, he will slip in behind other leaders and just whisper a few words here and there, but that was a tough one. It was tough for all of them.”

Forced and unforced errors

Robertson spoke more into the errors from McKenzie and Savea, and what they should have done in that moment.

“That’s the part where we need to be composed, which we’ve talked about a lot. Those are your moments; just settle and get the ball back down their end or get into a little bit of shape to play. That was the game.”

Although positives were in short supply for the All Blacks, Robertson did feel that young lock Sam Darry, who scored his first Test try, was impressive.

“There were some massive efforts from our boys, there were some great performances. Sam Darry, second Test, he was great at Test level,” he added.