Preview - Argentina v NZ
Argentina prepare their closing speech
It is time for the Pumas to finish their case, and have it listened to. The long wait for a decisive and just verdict on their exclusion from the world's rugby stage drags on and on, with the team pleading to more and more different courts as their case gathers both weight of evidence and public support.
Tri-Nations, Six Nations, new Americas Five Nations ... something, somewhere, there must be a place for this team to be officially recognised as a top rugby nation. Once again, the argument has been laid out in clearest terms, with an emphatic 2-0 series win over Wales.
On Saturday, their on-field case goes before the most eminent judges of all, the black-clad lords of the current game, who have come to Buenos Aires to give these Pumas their sternest cross-examination yet. A decisive answering of the questions posed here would be the most irrefutable evidence of all.
That this Argentina team enters the match in their current position is lamentable. The media moguls and corporate cling-ons who saw fit to exclude Argentina from the new Tri-Nations contract have set the game back years in the country, and robbed world rugby of a tournament showcase for what is indisputably one of the world's finest teams.
The decision to perpetuate their spell in professional rugby's competitive wilderness even knocked the life out of the Argentine administration, eventually sparking the players' strike that nearly did for the June Tests. The UAR, once more aggressive in its arguments to the IRB/SANZAR judges, has descended into a forlorn apathy. It seems now that it is the players who have been left to fight the fight for their country on the union's behalf, an impossible task given most of the squad's trans-continental commitments.
The Argentine clubs, which produce a steady stream of talent currently bolstering any number of European squads (think Gonzalo Tiesi at London Irish, the Fernandez Lobbe brothers at Sale) are also left high and dry. Without the impetus of competition for the national team, it is unthinkable that the clubs could seek to find or create their own professional environment to keep the best players home rather than just bid them fond paternal farewells every year. As long as Argentina has no place in annual top-level international competition, the exodus of the best will continue, and the grass-roots game within the country will mark time rather than fulfil its potential.
The national team is a team that appeals to the rugby public of the world on every level, from the hairy monsters in the front row, through to the groomed latino charmers in the backs, and has achieved victory within the rugby world at nearly every level bar the one they test themselves against on Saturday.
When Argentina play one of the 'big boys' how many neutrals want the Pumas to win? As the numbers in the 'win' column mount, how many can half-expect the Pumas to win? As the Pumas win more Tests, how many can deny that the team should be playing for some silverware rather than just 'reminding-you-we-are-here' status?
Somewhere along the line, rugby's showpiece tournament administrators - particularly in the Southern Hemisphere - have been guilty of some menopausally limp will in the face of quick and plentiful cash on offer from a company or companies not interested in the sport itself.
As a result, this particular Puma XV, which is well into maturity and still has room to improve to a World Cup peak of form next year, may never taste proper competition. We can only hope that they keep triumphing in the face of adversity over the next twelve months, and that in France - where so many of them are at home from home - the Argentina team can do enough to ram a dose of Viagra down those limp-willed administrators' throats.
So this match is far more than just a June Test for the Pumas. It is their Tri-Nations finale, their chance to feel like champions.
It is the strongest team the Pumas can offer. Age and experience blended with youth, dogged strength with nimble guile, urgent passion with learned patience. This XV, more or less, would be the one that coach Marcelo Loffreda would use for a Rugby World Cup crunch match.
With a series win over Wales out of the way and the units now functioning after a rare fortnight together, confidence is high.
"In the last three weeks the team is going up, we are stronger in the strategy and the mind," Loffreda told the NZPA.
"For a team that only gathers twice in a year, it's quite good what we do (but) we do not have the depth, or the budgets. We are on a different level but we will play with passion too."
They Pumas face an All Blacks XV which is the final stage of an experiment. It is not necessarily the strongest New Zealand team, but then it is impossible to tell which is these days. In November, we will know.
The front five is certainly first-choice, with forwards coach Mike Cron under no illusions as to what the Argentine pack is capable of.
"It's a macho pride thing," Cron explained before overseeing the All Blacks final scrummaging session in Buenos Aires yesterday.
"They crave physical dominance. It doesn't matter what happens out in the backs – for them it's eight on eight."
In the back row are the traces of the Henry trials, with Chris Masoe and Mose Tuiali'i adding a little extra ball-in-hand running strength rather than the supporting and floor expertise of regarded first-choices Richie McCaw and Rodney So'oialo.
In the centres is another experiment, with Isaia Toeava playing his first game there outside Chiefs number twelve Sam Tuitupou. They are a typical centre pairing of uncompromising strength at 12 and nippier possibility at 13, and marshalled by Dan Carter, they will have ample opportunity to show what they can do, as will debutant Scott Hamilton on the wing.
"It's going to be a good test for the untried players, the ones that haven't played a lot of test football, to see how they measure up," Henry told reporters in Buenos Aires.
Given the strength and development of this Argentina team, it will be a good test for the ones who have as well.
Ones to watch:
For New Zealand: Debutant Scott Hamilton has a queue of luminaries in the wide position to push in front of, but a quiet assuredness and work-rate off the ball will keep him competitive. Not the most prolific of Super 14 marksmen this season, but he is an integral part of the most prolific back-line, and probably has only this one chance to prove his worthiness in the squad of 30 for the Tri-Nations.
For Argentina: Young centre Gonzalo Tiesi has burst onto the scene at all levels of the game since becoming a professional player only five months ago with London Irish, and in a team with plenty of old heads, the 21-year-old represents the impertinence and imagination of youth. On Saturday he wins his eighth cap, having scored three tries in the series win over Wales and with the trajectory of his rising star very much leaning towards the vertical. "Challenging myself against the best in the world is fantastic," he said on Thursday. "I have seen them in the Super 14, I know how they play. To measure myself at that level has been an ambition. I am very excited." With Tiesi pitted opposite New Zealand's own young prodigy Toeava, the outside centre battle is one to remember for the future.
Head to head: Anton Oliver (New Zealand) v Mario Ledesma (Argentina): Two old heads with masters degrees in front-row dark art. The question-mark still lingers over Ledesma's throwing, but among the scrums, the rucks and the mauls, this will be a confrontation of note in the shadows.
Prediction: We are going to stick our necks out here. The All Blacks starting XV has not played since the final of the Super 14 four weeks ago, some since two weeks before that. No matter how meticulous the preparation there is going to be some ring-rustiness, and in the face of the Puma passion, battle-hardness, desperation to prove a point, and the tight confines of the pitch that do not suit an All Black expansive game, there might be an defeat for New Zealand in a manner akin to that to South Africa at Newlands in the first Tri-Nations match last year. Argentina by four points.
Totalbet.com prediction: New Zealand to win by 10 points.
Previous results:
2004: New Zealand won 41-7 in Hamilton
2001: New Zealand won 24-20 in Buenos Aires
2001: New Zealand won 67-19 in Christchurch
1997: New Zealand won 62-10 in Hamilton
1997: New Zealand won 93-8 in Wellington
1991: New Zealand won 36-6 in Buenos Aires
1991: New Zealand won 28-14 in Buenos Aires
1989: New Zealand won 49-12 in Wellington
1989: New Zealand won 60-9 in Dunedin
1987: New Zealand won 46-15 in Wellington
1985: Draw 21-21 in Buenos Aires
1985: New Zealand won 33-20 in Buenos Aires
The teams:
New Zealand: 15 Leon MacDonald, 14 Rico Gear, 13 Isaia Toeava, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Scott Hamilton, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Mose Tuiali'i, 7 Chris Masoe, 6 Jerry Collins (captain), 5 Ali Williams, 4 Jason Eaton, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Anton Oliver, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 Neemia Tialata, 18 Troy Flavell, 19 Craig Newby, 20 Jimmy Cowan, 21 Luke McAlister, 22 Ma'a Nonu.
Argentina: 15 Juan Martin Hernández, 14 José María Núñez Piossek, 13 Gonzalo Tiesi, 12 Felipe Contepomi, 11 Federico Martín Aramburu, 10 Federico Todeschini, 9 Agustín Pichot (captain), 8 Gonzalo Longo, 7 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe, 6 Martín Durand, 5 Rimas Alvarez Kairelis, 4 Ignacio Fernández Lobbe, 3 Omar Hasan, 2 Mario Ledesma, 1 Rodrigo Roncero.
Replacements: 16 Pablo Gambarini, 17 Martín Scelzo, 18 Martín Schusterman, 19 Juan Manuel Leguizamón, 20 Nicolas Fernández Miranda, 21 Lucas Borges, 22 Federico Serra.
Date: Saturday, June 24
Kick-off: 20.40 (23.40 GMT)
Venue: Vélez Sársfield, Buenos Aires
Weather: 11°C, muggy with heavy rain showers.
Referee: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)
Touch judges: Dave Pearson (England), Eric Darrière (France)
Television match official: Giulio De Santis (Italy)
Assessor: Frans Muller (South Africa)
By Danny Stephens