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After 32 long years the All Blacks are back in Mendoza

Beauden Barrett of the New Zealand All Blacks scores a try during The Rugby Championship match between the New Zealand All Blacks and Argentina Pumas at FMG Stadium Waikato on September 03, 2022 in Hamilton, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

As it happens all over the world, it is a huge event when the All Blacks are in town. So, when New Zealand and Argentina kick-off a new edition of The Rugby Championship, it will be in a new test venue for the visitors that is bracing for the black wave.

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Mendoza is known as the city of wine and sun, Malbec to be more precise, nestled on the foothills of the Andes in the background.

Drive nine hours to the west and after crossing one of the world’s biggest and highest mountain ranges, you will arrive on the same Pacific Ocean that Ian Foster’s side flew over to arrive on Sunday night in Mendoza.

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Contrary to previous trips to Argentina, the All Blacks will have less than a week in town, which will make adjusting to jet-lag a bit harder. In a long year, a yawn here and a yawn there might be better than being away for an extra couple of days.

Ready to attack is a Puma side that has only formally got together a few days ago. Their first official training session will be in Mendoza on Monday, where there is a huge buzz for Saturday’s game.

A regular test venue since the start of the Rugby Championship in 2012, it was here where Argentina played their first home game that year against the Springboks. It will be the first time the All Blacks play an international in the country outside of bustling Buenos Aires, but their third visit here after games against Cuyo in 1976 and 1991.

The last All Black team to visit Mendoza in 1991.
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COVID-19 stopped the world in its tracks in 2020 and Argentina had one of the strictest and longest quarantine – house prison kind of… Mendoza missed on having the All Blacks that year. Three years later, it has finally happened.

The hunger to see Los Pumas in the country, let alone Mendoza, is huge. But having the All Blacks takes it to a totally new level.

The Estadio Malvinas Argentinas was built for the 1978 FIFA World Cup and has only had facelifts since. It still holds up and with the 42,500 seats already sold-out, there are a lot of unhappy fans that were hoping that tickets would be easily found.

It is a big rugby city, yet the stadium has never been fully complete for rugby.

“I’ve heard of a lot of rugby people that had been accustomed to getting their hands on tickets through clubs, friends, even the local government, that did not buy when they went to sale and now are desperate,” tells me a Mendoza friend.

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“There is certainly a different vibe in the city. Definitely.”

Wallabies and Springboks have been in Mendoza before; but the All Blacks elevate this demand.

Seeing what Los Pumas can bring to the equation is also important for local fans.

With scrumhalf Gonzalo Bertranou in line for his fiftieth test at home, the very efficient Juan González playing his first test in front of family and friends and the possible test debut for sevens star Rodrigo Isgro, local fans have a lot to cheer for.

Mendoza will always be the land that brought us Federico Méndez, until 2020 the only Argentine to beat the All Blacks. That is a good quiz question. When and with what team?

The land of Malbec also captured now Puma coach Michael Cheika in 2018 ranting and raving in the changing room during the halftime break of a game the Wallabies were losing 31-7. He did get the message through to his team eventually turning around the game for an unforgettable 45-34 win.

He jumped onto the Pumas staff in 2020 and since, Argentina has beaten the All Blacks twice – in Sydney 2020 and Christchurch last year. Last year was his first as head coach and whilst the team had some unforgettable moments – beating Scotland in a three-game series at home, beating the All Blacks in their own den and a second-ever win at Twickenham – it kind of derailed in the last two games in November against Wales and Scotland.

This being a World Cup year, only a tad over two months away, the goal is in France and these early games, five – All Blacks, Wallabies, two against the Springboks and a final run-out with Spain – are all stepping-stones towards the first game in Marseille, September 9.

It is game-by-game. Winning is important, but as Cheika has said, it is about what you take away from each game, each training session. Basically, give the short time, every moment together as a squad.

Mendoza will give a clear idea of where this year is heading to.

Fitness could be an issue. It is unclear who is match fit and these next few weeks will give clear indicators of who are the thirty-three that will make it to Rugby World Cup. More clues will be available when the match squad is announced on Thursday.

As ridiculous as it sounds, the All Blacks are a stepping-stone. As Los Pumas are to them.

We will all be the wiser after the first round of another exciting Rugby Championship

By the way, if you were still wondering, Méndez played for the World XV in the first Centenary test in 1992.

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2 Comments
c
carlos 506 days ago

No me acordaba para quien jugó Mendez cuando les ganó.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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