Pumas fire silent warning at NZ
New Zealand may have good reason to be cautious about the threat posed by Argentina in their Rugby Championship Round Three match in Napier on Saturday.
Not only did the Pumas run South Africa close in the opening rounds - going down 6-13 in monsoon-like conditions in Pretoria and suffering a heartbreaking 31-33 loss in Salta a week later - but the Argentineans are so determined to break their duck in the Southern Hemisphere championship that they are training three times a day.
The All Blacks host the Pumas in Napier on Saturday, hoping to retain the winning streak they have over the South Americans.
However, they are not taking anything for granted, New Zealand assistant coach Ian Foster said.
"They're knocking on the door each year and, having looked through the tapes of those two games [against the Springboks], they're a dramatically improved side from last year," Foster told reporters in Napier.
"I don't think even giving South Africa a scare [in Salta] is the right way to describe it. They were in control of that game and just lost it in the last few minutes.
"They've shown they can play and, when they get that right, they will knock someone over."
The Pumas' determination to get it right and get that first Rugby Championship win, is reflected in their training regime.
Their arrival in New Zealand and their first two days of training - at the College Rifles club in Auckland - was marked by typical wet and unpleasant conditions, although Tuesday's three sessions were greeted by slightly better conditions than Monday's outings.
Tuesday's outings consisted of two blocks of training in the morning and a gym session in the evening, to which they added a scrum practice.
Assistant coach Germán Fernández said they worked on all aspects of their game.
"We did three blocks of high intensity [training], in which all the coaches were in charge of looking at some specific aspect [of the game]," he said.
"Our focus was on the breakdown, which we will continue to work on, as well as our strategy and other facets of the game."
Wednesday is a rest day for Argentina, but Thursday they will have another full training day and on Friday it will be the captain's run in Napier - ahead of Saturday's encounter with New Zealand.
Scrumhalf Martin Landajo said training in the adverse weather conditions do have some advantages.
"We are not accustomed to rain, and we prefer the dry weather," Landajo said, adding: "We know it rains a lot in New Zealand so we must adapt.
"The adverse weather does influence the game. It certainly does not suit us, or the type of game we want to play, but we have to adapt and we must know how to play all climates."
The No.9 described New Zealand as the best team in the world, saying they will face a big challenge against a very tough opponent.
Lock Mariano Galarza also spoke of the need to adjust to the conditions.
"It looks like we'll face rain and wind on Saturday, so this is a good opportunity to get used to what we will experience in the game," Galarza said.
He said Saturday would be their toughest match of the six they will play in this year's Championship.
"The key will be to concentrate and continue playing for a full 80 minutes, as there were some lapses [in concentration] that cost us dearly [against South Africa].
"Against these teams, if you lose focus for just two minutes they score points against you, so we must not gift them the ball and ensure we score points whenever we can."
Foster was not concerned that the poor weather battering Napier in the buildup to the Test would bring back memories of the atrocious conditions the All Blacks faced in their 12-all draw with the Wallabies in the first week of the competition.
"The rain is always a leveller," the former flyhalf added.
"We saw that in Sydney when it was very wet and our skill level dropped to such an extent that it made that game a real bun fight.
"We started to slow down everything that we did and that means your attack gets nullified.
"It has been good training in the wet so hopefully we will go well."