All Blacks vs Argentina: Ian Foster restores top lineup – ‘We didn’t act last week’

After the Brisbane debacle, return to Plan A for the All Blacks before the unknown that is Argentina in West Sydney on Saturday.

Plan A, as in Team A. The lineup presented by head coach Ian Foster in Sydney on Thursday is, for all intents and purposes, the All Blacks team that flexed its muscles against the Wallabies in Auckland and then crushed them for a record margin at ANZ Stadium the following week to hide. the Bledisloe for one more year.

After last week’s attempt at Brisbane’s Bledisloe IV to give some of the backup brigade a chance and move one or two to different positions, it took off quite a bit, this is a return to normal programming, so to speak. . Even Foster, never so willing to acknowledge a pecking order in his squad, had to admit that while reflecting on a starting XV to face the Argentines showing nine new faces and three positional somersaults from last Saturday.

The highlight, however, is that XV, which will kick off Tri-Nations match No. 3 at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday (7:10 p.m. NZT start) features only two changes from those that started shooting. the ball so well in Sydney. The bottom line and the group’s rear five are identical, and there are two forced shifts in the front row, with a fit Joe Moody back in the loose head pillar and Tyrel Lomax in place of the suspended Ofa Tu’ungafasi in the head closed.

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Otherwise, this is the group that Foster firmly believes best serves the All Blacks with the stakes. Shannon Frizell is alongside dynamic Ardie Savea and skipper Sam Cane on the loose; Dane Coles as a prostitute; Patrick Tuipulotu and Sam Whitelock in the engine room; and Aaron Smith and Richie Mo’unga will generate a highly demanding baseline with Jack Goodhue and Anton Lienert-Brown in midfield and brothers Barrett and Caleb Clarke in the bottom three.

Also remarkably, while Foster spoke out strongly against the theory, two of Brisbane’s notable offenders have failed to get through entirely. Middle TJ Perenara, scratchy last time by his high standards, is replaced on the bench by Brad Weber and blocks Scott Barrett, who made the costly and silly yellow card play in a ruck at the end of the piece, and misses. for the newbie Tupou Vaa’i in the pine.

“Several players have had a week off and are fresh,” Sydney’s Foster said Thursday. “The whole team is quite determined to put in a performance that shows that we have grown in recent weeks, so going to those existing combinations is quite important.”

The All Blacks are only as good as their last performances. And after the dizzying ANZ Stadium rush, these guys had a pretty normal last time, even if it was something of a scratch-off lineup, and the game was derailed by all four cards.

“It’s a bleak feeling when you lose in the black jersey,” Foster noted. “We are frustrated by that. There were several guys who went out for their first hit for a while, and there was a bit of rust in the combinations.

“It was a formula that we had to do because we have some players to whom we must give some opportunity. But it was a stark reminder that you have to be prepared. There have been a lot of good conversations this week and there are some disappointed players. That’s the way it should be.

“What it teaches you is that when you get the chance, this All Blacks jersey demands performance and when we don’t perform at the level we expect, we have to go and work twice as hard outside the park.”

Foster said some simple but strong messages had been sent this week. “We have had two quite significant victories and we have not been able to back them up. Now we have to move on and continue to grow in the aspects of our game that I am really satisfied with. “

The coach, however, tried to soften the blows of the Perenara and Barrett omission of the 23 as a kind of convenient rotation: Barrett is on the back of a long stint this year and Perenara by giving Weber a well-deserved chance out. from the field. Bank. The reality is that you will both be disappointed with some aspects of your Suncorp exhibit.

There was also the temptation to give Akira Ioane another chance after his early departure from Brisbane due to the expulsion of Tu’ungafasi. Once again, familiarity won the day. “We were disappointed in the way we played last week so we felt we would go back to those combinations that worked well at Eden Park and Sydney, and that came at a cost to Akira,” Foster added.

Foster also confirmed that a decision would be made after Saturday’s game about sending a small group (including Tu’ungafasi) back to New Zealand early to gain an advantage in their managed isolation. That will include injuries and needs for the final match against Argentina.

And the coach expects a well-prepared, if possibly rusty, Pumas team on Saturday for their first test since the World Cup.

“They’ve been here a while and they’ve probably had something that most international teams have never had, which is about three weeks of really solid training and preparation. I’m sure your understanding of the game will be high.

“They have had two really strong games against Australia A, and they have shown a lot of the form and style that we have become used to seeing in them. We expect a very well organized team, and we have to make sure they take a little time to adjust to the intensity of a test match. “

ALL THE BLACK PEOPLE: Beauden Barrett, Jordie Barrett, Jack Goodhue, Caleb Clarke, Richie Mo’unga, Aaron Smith; Ardie Savea, Sam Cane (captain), Shannoon Frizell, Sam Whitelock, Patrick Tuipulotu, Tyrel Lomax, Dane Coles, Joe Moody. Bookings: Codie Taylor, Alex Hodgman, Nepo Laulala, Tupou Vaa’I, Hoskins Sotutu, Brad Weber, Rieko Ioane, Damian McKenzie.