The AB's finally clicked. Just as I predicted. We will conveniently ignore the fact that I've been (wrongly) predicting that the would finally click for the last month
Overall I found this a very entertaining game to watch. In general the forward pack did a very good job, though I thought the tight-forwards were guilty of missing a few too many tackles. This may have been more a fault of the defensive system, rather than the players themselves though. There weren't many standouts in the tight-forwards for me - it was more of a case of everyone doing their own job well. Messam was solid at 6 again, and pulled of a couple of big hits too. His short passing game is very impressive, and I feel that a number of the AB's forwards could learn a lot from him in this area. McCaw was McCaw. If had been any other 7 in the world you may well be raving about his game, but given he has performed like this dozens of times before you tend to take it for granted! In a game dominated by the backs, I felt Read was Man of the Match. I love the way he runs at gaps from such depth - it seems so simple, but I don't know of any player in world rugby that does this as well as him. In addition to his running his defense was superb - he made a number of big hits too, with one leading directly to Savea's 1st try.
Smith was good at halfback, while Carter was superb at first-five. It was great to see him running hard at the line, which really put Argentina's defense in two-minds. Nonu probably had his best game in black this season too, mainly as he was doing one thing - running straight and hard. I thought both our wings were outstanding. In this form Jane is the best outside back in world rugby. For some reason teams haven't seemed to work out that kicking the ball high in his direction isn't a good idea! His 3rd try was a great bit of individual skill, from the anticipation of the intercept, the brilliant handling, to the superb fend and pace to get away from the defense. Savea seems to be growing with every game, and looks right at home at test level. His basic skill-set is actually very impressive, he defended well, and he is a real weapon with ball in hand - I can't see him losing his spot on the left wing anytime soon. I was very happy with Dagg at fullback again. While he didn't standout with ball in hand he was rock solid, which is something you really want from your fullback. His long range punting is a real weapon too - I love the way the AB's sit Carter and Dagg in the pocket on either side of the breakdown in defensive situations, giving them left and right foot kicking options and making it far harder for the opposition to put pressure on the clearing kick.
I was very surprised at the way Argentina played - while it was great to see them play some attacking rugby, you couldn't help but feel if they had played a more negative style of rugby the game would have been a bit closer. They were rewarded with their attacking endeavor with a couple of great tries, and I hope they continue to adopt this more attacking style of rugby, as they are clearly capable of scoring some great tries! I was impressed with the halfback Landajo, Bosch and Amorosino made a couple of great breaks, and I love how Camacho fights for every metre he can get with ball in hand. I do wonder if their tight-five lack a bit of mobility for an expansive game plan, as you could see they were visibly tiring in the last 10-15 minutes of each half. It is going to be interesting to see how Argentina approaches the match versus Australia in the weekend - they are used to entering matches like this as underdogs, but given the depleted nature of the Aussie side they are almost certainly favourites going into this match, which will be a different experience for them.
