Savea brace for All Blacks in tight win over Pumas

By Greg Stutchbury

NAPIER New Zealand (Reuters) - Winger Julian Savea scored two tries as New Zealand again struggled to put Argentina away before they eventually ground out a 28-9 win in their tightly contested Rugby Championship clash at McLean Park in Napier on Saturday.

Liam Messam and Aaron Smith also scored tries for the All Blacks to secure a vital four-try bonus point, though the home side had a poor game with the boot.

Beauden Barrett, making his first start at flyhalf, kicked a penalty but missed four other kicks, before he was replaced by Colin Slade, who kicked a penalty and a conversion, though he also missed a penalty.

Flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez slotted three penalties for the Pumas, who were also unlucky to have a try to Leonardo Senatore inexplicably ruled out by referee Pascal Gauzere, who said the number eight's charge down of a clearing kick was a knock on.

"There are things that happen on the game, unfortunately the referee didn't see it, but that's all," Argentina captain Agustin Creevy told reporters, before adding it could have changed their momentum.

"But we had an excellent first half then we made some easy mistakes with the tries they scored off the first phase.

"We didn't take advantage of the situation when we did score. That would've been the difference and we could have been closer on the scoreboard."

TIGHT STRUGGLE

The All Blacks have struggled to put Argentina away in recent games in New Zealand and the pattern continued on Saturday as the heavy rain that had threatened to influence the game duly arrived in the late afternoon and dropped balls and a tough forward battle were the predominant features of the match.

"Very happy with the final result," All Blacks' coach Steve Hansen said. "We have played these guys three years in a row in not great conditions and this is the first time we have got a bonus point so fairly happy to have picked that up."

Barrett and Sanchez traded penalties midway through the first half before the All Blacks managed to break down the Pumas' defensive line with clever tactical kicking that Savea pounced upon to score the first try.

Sanchez reduced the scoreline to 8-6 with his second penalty before the All Blacks gave themselves a massive confidence boost after the halftime hooter when they secured a tighthead from the Pumas' scrum.

Barrett broke the line and beat the cover defenders and fed to Messam to extend the advantage to 13-6, a critical lead that gave them momentum heading into the second half.

Barrett then created Savea's second try shortly after the break when he took the ball to the defensive line and popped a no-look pass to his Wellington Hurricanes' team mate to storm onto the ball and cross.

The match then descended into another arm wrestle before the decision that effectively killed off the Puma's chances.

While trailling just 18-9 they were putting pressure on the All Blacks deep in their own half, Senatore then charged down Ma'a Nonu's clearing kick and raced away for a try, only for Gauzere to call him back, to the surprise of many in the near sell-out crowd of 21,329.

The All Blacks then shut the game down in the final 20 minutes when Slade kicked a penalty and number eight Kieran Read broke from an attacking scrum to feed scrumhalf Smith for the bonus point try under the posts with less than 10 minutes remaining.

"Once you get four tries in conditions like this you're going to be happy," All Blacks' captain Richie McCaw said. "It was always going to be scrappy and there were patches there where we didn't look after the ball but they stuck at it.

"We had an Argentina side who certainly came to play and they put real pressure on us at the contact area, but we expected that.

"There was a wee patch in the second half where we didn't get much luck at scrum time but I'm proud of the ways the guys came back and won a couple of big scrums that resulted in tries and that was satisfying."

(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)