MY RANT - ARGENTINA v AUSTRALIA

good day everyone and welcome to inside rugby with Mark if you haven't been here before well my name is Mark I'm a retired kiwi bloke who loves rugby and I'm living here in beautiful Cancun in Mexico although we've got tropical weather storms going through today so it's pretty interesting to say the least but in this video I'm going to be talking about that game between Argentina and Australia in the weekend in the rugby Championship competition both teams looking to consolidate their POS position and trying to bounce back after losing their respective game last time out Argentina of course getting beaten by the All Blacks at Eden Park and Australia getting thumped by South Africa over there in Perth so let's get into the video right now and I'll give you my opinions about this particular game [Music] okay let's get the homework out of the way straight up and first of all if you're new to the channel welcome it's great to have you here I'm just doing this channel because I want to play a small role in helping the great game of rugby grow across the world and if you can contribute to that process in some way here are five ways that you can do that don't forget to join me on Twitter plenty of stuff I'm sharing over there as well as we go through the weeks of rugby so really interesting stuff so take a look see what you can do to help out and I would really appreciate it now getting on with the show today I'd love to hear your comments around this game and also these two particular teams in this year's rugby championship of course Argentina they started off so well in New Zealand by taking that victory in Wellington many people are saying well the All Blacks didn't play well enough my view and verdict on that is that Argentina still had to score the points and they put 38 points against the All Blacks in that game in Wellington not too many teams have been to do that in recent history so of course the Aussies had a difficult task against South Africa in Australia the first game in Brisbane at Sun Corp Stadium it was a comprehensive Victory there to South Africa and then they moved on to Perth and of course we had those Dreadful rainy conditions in Perth that didn't really suit either team and South Africa are again coming out on top of that one with a bit of an error strewn game over there in Perth so it was a bit of a shame to see the weather and La Plata in the weekend in Argentina the rain has followed the Aussies so far this year and it was going to be another wet game so it's was going to be interesting to see how both teams adapted to this game playing back at home in front of their home crowd and it was that man Augustine creevy that we were going to see come on the field even though very later in the game and he was going to be awarded with his 10th cap for Argentina an absolute Legend in Argentinian rugby but also in world rugby and the hooker came on to play in a very unfamiliar position of flanker towards the end of the game and I'll talk about that a little bit more in a moment now I think out of the two teams the Aussies would have been more disappointed in the conditions than the argentinians I think the Aussies were going to be looking to try and spin the ball as wide as possible on a hard dry ground but that wasn't going to be the case so I think the argentinians would have been happy to see this weather to give them an opportunity to try and belt the Aussies up in the forwards so when the game kicked off it was absolutely bucketing down and there was no doubt about it that it was going to be pretty hard to handle a slippery ball in this game but both teams gave it a bit of a go and Australia in the first opening Gambit of the game had some good Poss in fact they had a lot of Poss and uh they just couldn't find a way through a very good Argentinian defense now we saw this Argentinian defense line against the All Blacks caused some problems in that first test they didn't do so well in the second test the All Blacks got on top of it but they did come back in the last 20 minutes of that game in Oakland and again their defensive pattern was very very good they brought that into the start of this game against Australia and they showed they could repel this Australian attack the sad thing for Australia so far in this year's rugby Championship that only 6% of the time of getting into the opposition's Red Zone have they been able to convert that to points so that's a real weakness for them they're just not able to convert and that comes down to the way that they're playing and I watched this during this particular game they were spending a lot of time with the ball close close into the inside channels the pick and go by the forwards was repetition over and over again but they weren't able to break through the uh Argentinian defense I was a little bit disappointed in lso the Noah lso the number 10 for Australia in the beginning he wasn't using the ball I was thinking in the right ways to be able to open the Argentinian backline up and uh put his colleagues away in through Gap so that was something that I think Australia missing in general at the moment but uh Australia had plenty of the ball in that first 20 minutes they weren't able to capitalize by putting points on the board and uh the reverse to that was when Argentina got down into the Aussie territory they were able to pick off a couple of penalties so Argentina went ahead 10 points to nil fairly quickly in this game and it was thanks to a really good try of theirs as well by one Martin Gonzalez their number eight and uh I've got to say he's one of the standout number eights in the rugby Championship this year he's been playing exceptionally good rugby I really like the guy he's good in line outs he wins a lot of secure ball for the argentinians but he's also very good in open play and he pops up every now and again and scores a try like he did uh against Australia in this particular game really really good player keep your eye on them for the rest of the Seas now with these types of conditions it wasn't long before we saw the old box kick come back into the game and as you probably know if you've been watching any of my videos I'm not a big fan of the Box kicks and Jake Gordon from Australia was throwing a few up and uh they weren't working and Argentina were winning the ball both in the contest but also when the ball was going into a gap so I don't know why these teams are persisting with box kicking I just think it's an absolute waste of time you're better off having ball in hand or doing a strategic kick trying for a 5022 or putting the ball deep into open territory it's going to give you a lot more reward I think than a box kick that doesn't tend to work out on most occasions and that's what happened to Australia early in this game so it took Australia 28 minutes to get onto the scoreboard in this game and it came after a good few pick and goes from the Aussie forwards and the ball came out to Jake Gordon who went over for the try so the Aussies are having trouble in these games getting off and scoring points putting any kind of pressure on their opposition on the scoreboard even though they had a lot of possession in that first 30 minutes they just weren't able to get points on the board hats off though to the Argentinian defense I thought they did extremely well in that opening period and stopping Australia from getting through but finally we saw a try from Jake Gordon that was converted by lsia Australia were back in the game at that stage at 10 points to7 so there'd only be one more score before halftime and that'll go to Argentina careras getting another penalty kick over so 13-7 was the halftime score and it was a really good effort I thought on behalf of Argentina their Rush defense was working really well against the Aussies the Aussies looked like they had no ideas on how to get through the rush defense l Leo was doing a couple of Chip kicks Tom Wright from fullback was putting in a few grubbers but they were getting messed up with the Argentinian defense the balls were coming off people's legs and knees and uh running into bodies so it wasn't really decisive for the Australians they weren't able to put those chips over top and really get the ball back again on their side we saw a couple of good runs from Mara cor and betti for Australia but again he wasn't able to break the line of the Argentinian defense so for the first half for me was Argentinian defense that won them that first half but they were able to capitalize when they did get some penalty opportunities and they scored a good try through one Martin Gonzalez now Joe Schmidt's been saying through the campaign so far that he's looking for incremental improvements from this Australian team I don't think we got to see too much of it in that first half despite the uh scoreboard I thought it was more Argentina controlling through their defense Australia look a bit lackluster in their attack and a bit like New Zealand at time the creativity the innovation of their outward backs wasn't very good heon stewart was starting for his first game for the Aussies at second five he did pretty well in the first half I thought and we saw Len ow outside of him trying to get through the Argentinian defense but it wasn't there Callaway on the wing didn't see much ball at all in the first half and as I said cor Betty did a couple of good runs Without Really breaking the line which we're used to seeing from him in the green and gold jersey so it's going to be interesting to see what what happened in the second half I think conomy the Argentinian coach would have said to the boys at half time look we need to make sure we control the defensive side of this game through Carreras at number 10 they have a good playmaker who can set up through good kicks but also good distribution to his outside centers in choco Baris and cinti so it was going to be interesting to see which way it went I think Joe Schmidt was going to be looking after looking for a little bit more control and execution from this Australian team when they did have the ball on multiple phases they weren't able to execute we had a drop pass here and there we had a forward pass we had a kick that winter Ray and it just seems as though that last decisionmaking process for the Wes is letting them down at the moment although I think they've got some really really good players in this team and they just need to have the confidence come back now with such a narrow lead at halim it was going to be pretty important to see who would Score first in the second half and that would fall to the way of the argentinia career has got another penalty kick over so the halftime score of 13 points seven blew out to 16 points to 7 and all of a sudden Australia were chasing this game it was going to be interesting to see what mental capacity they had in terms of getting back into the game and we didn't have to wait too long because within 5 minutes of that penalty goal Australia scored a really good try and it was after a lot of forward pressure picking goes heading towards the line from a more situation and that big number eight for Australia Rob Valentini ended up going over for a very very good try so Australia we right back into it the conversion was was good and we had a two-point game after 50 minutes it was 1614 in favor of Argentina now what's interested me so far in the rugby Championship this year is looking at how teams are closing out the game of course with South Africa we've got the bomb squad and there's a lot of expectation around them we talk about how New Zealand seems to be a bit soft and lacking creativity Off the Bench how was it going to be for Argentina and Australia in this particular game well in the 60th minute Australia got a penal kick opportunity lsia got it over and they went into the lead by one point 17 points to 16 but Argentina weren't done and for the next few minutes they put on some very good attacking play both out wide but also in the forwards they got really close to the Aussies line they looked like they were going to score from about 5 m out scavy went over and lost the ball over the line when a try was beckoning there was a possible hand in there I think from Harry Wilson but scavy I think should have scored that one he was right there and I think that would have given Argentina the momentum they were really looking for in this game the crowd was going crazy at the time they' put a couple of really good phases of play together they had the Aussies under a lot of pressure and it was just that final touchdown that scavy wasn't able to do on that particular occasion and the argentinians came away from that one without any points it was a bit disappointing on their behalf and I'm sure kapom in the coach's box would have been pulling his hair out if he had any wasn't over for Argentina they kept the pressure on they came back again at the Aussie line and that pressure finally built into a penalty opportunity and alosi had come on for Carreras and he got the penalty kick over so Argentina hit the lead by 19 points to 17 with just 12 minutes left in the game so wory Aussie's going to be able to pull this one out of the bag or were Argentina going to be able to hold on as I mentioned earlier in the video we saw creevy come on towards the end of the game and this is when things got very interesting not just because he came on the field but because the Aussies had an opportunity from deep in their own 22 to clear the ball and get down towards the Argentinian half they did that by a great play out the right hand side of the field lisio was breaking through the Argentinian defense he had a good pass opportunity to jensson who had come on on the right wing but unfortunately jensson wasn't able to hold on to the ball and a fantastic opportunity for a Australia went begging with just a few minutes left on the clock the ball went out but Australia won it from a line out they started to put the pressure on towards the Argentinian line and with a just two minutes to go in the game they kept the pressure on they looked like they were going to score a try the referee was trying not to give a penalty but unfortunately for argentinia after about five or six phases of play very close to their line they did give an indiscretion up the penalty was given to Australia right out in front of the post and all that had to happen was Ben Donaldson who had come on for Australia had to get the kick over for Australia to win the game he did that with no seconds left on the Klo and there was a little bit of controversy around that as well and at the end Australia ended up winning a nailbiter by 20 points to 19 they pulled that one out of the fire that's for sure but they did very well in that last 5 minutes they were able to clear the ball from their line they stayed patient they got down and they executed the pick and go to the stage where they're able to get a penalty hats off to Australia they actually are able to complete that play pretty well okay so how am I seeing these two teams at the moment well a lot of people have got Doom and Gloom about Australian rugby at the moment I'm pleased to report I'm not one of those people I see that they're not too far away and I can see the things that Joe Schmidt's doing to improve this team I think if they have a really good win on a dry ground next weekend against Argentina they're going to put up a fight against the All Blacks and that's going to be really interesting and a lot of people are going to boohoo me for that but you wait and see I think this Australian team is full of talent and they just need a few more games together they need to get Joe Schmidt's philosophy clear and I think they're going to really bounce back to be a force to be reckoned with perhaps not this year but I think next year this team's really going to come on in Leaps and Bounds and of course that's going to be a great thing for the British and Irish Lions tour of Australia next year I see players like Harry Wilson at number eight who's playing really really well he just needs to be going up another level in his execution and I think he's going to be an outstanding player Tano is fantastic flanker I think they might have found their next Michael Hooper in this young guy he's come on and played a couple of really good games he was fantastic in this game against Argentina he tackled all day he was in the breakdowns like Hoopa does gets that ball out fast and he's a very very brave soul as well I saw him diving into the bottom of some of these rcks and getting the ball and putting his life on the line a couple of times so watch out for Tano I think he's going to be a cracker for this Australian team Angus Bell had a great game for Australia he was very good in the scrums and he was also very good in a couple of General play movements that I saw and tala tupo of for Australia so Australia's Got a Good front row they can muscle it with anybody and I think they can be very dynamic in open play so I think there's something there very very good for them to build on a of course Alan Alo toer is in there as well for the Aussies Nick Frost is playing well at lock for Australia and um he's winning some good line out ball and Rob Valentini at number eight is a standout as far as their forwards go so they've got a good pack they just need a little bit more experience and they need to sort themselves out when it comes to their execution if they're able to have one of those games where the bounce of the ball goes their way and they get a little bit of good luck I think this Australian team particularly in the forwards is going to show a lot more than what we've seen from them at this stage where they might be a little bit weak for me is around the 9 and 10 combination again as I've been talking about for a number of teams I think that Jake Gordon's got some limitations with his game I don't like the Box kicking that he does and uh when he's got a backline that he has I think he needs to use them more felt that Noah laio had a bit of a mixed game in this one his decision making at times was very poor he gave a couple of hail marry passes while he was under pressure that didn't help his his uh players on his side they put them under even more pressure and then Argentina were able to turn the ball over so game management is a big one for lsia and some of the execution of his kicks across the field in this game were a bit limiting he didn't get a lot of distance as well so even from penalty kicks he was only able to get 20 25 M when they should be putting it 40 or 50 m down the field that's something else that Australia needs to look at we saw Tom Wright also from fullback having a couple of problems with his kicking in General play look I put a lot of that down to the conditions the conditions were horrendous in this game so I might give them a little bit of a left left off for that one because uh they uh they had to contend with those conditions uh heus Stewart at second five did okay he did a couple of things wrong in the second half that gave argentinia the ball IIT was good he made a couple of really good breaks in fact he was the one that made a good break in the second half that gave Australia the opportunity to really get deep down into the Argentinian attack and as I said before cor Betty had a couple of good runs in this game Callaway didn't see much of the ball so for me the Australian backline the jury still out um I think Joe Schmitz is experimenting around of course we've seen pami in there as well I think he needs to continue doing that I don't think we've seen the best combination from the Australian backline at this stage and this is probably why they're not scoring a lot of points particularly early on in the game they just haven't got that creativity they've got a plenty of speed but they're just not using the combinations right at this point in my opinion to be able to put points on the board as I said it took them 30 minutes to get on the scoreboard in this particular game a lot of that though was down to the Argentinian defense so argentinia let's have a look at them well they'd be really disappointed to lose this game in the last minute uh we saw kter Pony up in the coaching Box about to walk out when they were in the lead with about 60 or 90 seconds to go by the time he got down to the ground side Argentina would have lost this game that was a little bit disappointing I think they did enough to win this game they looked good in the forwards they were able to get to the breakdowns and win a lot of those despite having not a lot of the possession in the first half they were still winning on the scoreboard and that's a sign of a good team that's able to take the opportunities while they're there and that's one thing I really like about this Argentinian team they're able to keep the scoreboard ticking over while they were able to in this game anyway and that was a real positive for them so I think also they were limited by the conditions choco Baris and cinti for instance weren't able to get the footing required to really do some really great runs in this game although we did see choco Baris take the ball up a number of times and turn it back for his forwards which was good but I think Argentina were a little bit unlucky in this one Australia did enough to get across the line but I think this sets us up for a great game next weekend between these two teams and let's hope we get a dry track because it's going to really bring out the best of them and I think both of these teams deserve that opportunity to try and mold their combinations together so as I said I haven't given up on this Australian team I think the ingredients are there I think their backs need to be looked at and that comes through combinations and experience I think on a dry ground they could have looked a lot better than they were this weekend but it'll be interesting to see what Joe Schmidt does in terms of selections for next weekend's test match I really like this Argentinian team I love their forwards the likes of uh Martin Gonzalez Marcos creamer of course Pablo Mata had another really good game one mon Toya was in there as well lavanini came on they've got the ingredients and they've got the talent there from this Argentinian team we just need to see more consistency when it comes to winning test matches that's what they seem to be lacking but then they turn up at the Rugby World Cups and they get through to the semi- final and uh that's something that a lot of teams will be looking at doing in their campaigns as they head up towards Australia in 2027 is to try and get more consistency into winning their games of rugby and that's one thing that Argentina needs to do if they want to move up from that ranking of number six and get up to the top five of world rugby okay well that's my review of this game if you saw it let me know what you thought from both sides Argentina and Australia am I living too much in Hope for this wab team or are you like me and you see a glimmer of hope with some real potential there I just want to see them get a dry track and have a real go at against Argentina next weekend now one of the many things I love about my channel is the diversity of thought that you offer in terms of the comment so make sure you get on the keyboard now and drop me a comment about this game about these two teams about what you think might happen next weekend between them because I read all the comments and I'm really interested to not only read what you've got to say but also learn from what you've got to say as well so I'm really really appreciative of that okay well that's it for this video I'm going to be back again soon as we build up this week towards these Mighty games next weekend of course we've got South Africa and the All Blacks going at it again in Cape Town and we've got Argentina against Australia again coming to us from buiser next weekend so until then until the next video I should say stay well stay safe everybody it's time for me to say adios from beautiful Cancun in Mexico until next time bye for now [Music]