2023-10-21 12:04:23
By Adrien Bez
Published 2 hours ago, Updated 2 minutes ago
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Swept away on Friday by the All Blacks (44-6), the Pumas once again failed at the gates of the final. With the feeling of not having struggled.
When a team loses 44-6 in the semi-final of the World Cup, it’s hard to say that “it’s in the details that it comes down to it“. However, this is what Michael Cheika said on Friday, at a press conference, after his team’s heavy defeat against the All Blacks. “The little details about the transition in scrums, the last two minutes before halftime, the first two minutes after halftime… It’s those little nuances that we don’t have in our game yet», Specified the Argentinian coach.
Julian Montoya, his captain, was undoubtedly more lucid: “Today, we are far from the level we wanted to show. I’m devastated, it’s a huge disappointment.» Overtaken in all areas of the game, Argentina never seemed able to stand up to the New Zealanders, first in control, then devastating. The ingredients used in the two recent victories against this opponent (November 2020 and August 2022) were not there on Friday evening. After 2007 and 2015, the Pumas again failed at the gates of the final, this time without having had the feeling of fighting.
It turns out that we didn’t have the class to compete with New Zealand.
Michael Cheika, Argentina coach
So how can we explain the rout? The rain ? Arbitration? Maybe start with the team level in black. This is, according to Montoya, “a fantastic team, by far the best today“, who has “marked on each of his occasions“. The coach himself ended up admitting that his team simply “didn’t havenot the class needed to compete with New Zealand“. But the partners of Aaron Smith and Beauden Barrett may have played flamboyant rugby, but they were well helped by the opposing air gaps.
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And the answers are also to be sought from the Pumas. It’s not a problem of envy, “the players gave everything» underlines Cheika. The big weak point was the static phases. “We weren’t good in mauls, in scrums, I don’t really know whytries to analyze the Australian. At two or three important moments in the scrum in the first half, we had possession, we were well placed but we lost the ball on a forward and we ended up with a try conceded. At the start of the second half, same thing. We went from 15-6 to 27-6 and from there it was really difficult.»
Bronze lens
In attack, the Argentines had difficulty breaking through the New Zealand defensive curtain, it seemed to be lacking “this little thing to get through. We needed 20 phases and it was certain that at one point or another, we would make a mistake.» In short, too many inaccuracies to hope for anything against a team against whom “the slightest mistake is fatal».
No doubt we should not have hoped for more from this Argentina, whose journey was chaotic. After its inaugural defeat against England, it won all its matches but never fully convinced. It will always be able, as Marcos Kremer indicates, “learn lessons to display a level of play that [lui] let us go for victory“. But it is clear that the gap which separates it from the very best nations is large. In the meantime, the disappointment is immense. “Our dream is gone and for everyone, it’s terrible», constate Julian Montoya, amer.
For these valiant Pumas, the World Cup is not quite over. There remains the match for third place, with a potential medal at stake. “We want to leave this World Cup as winners and we will do everything to make it happen“, says Kremer. Against South Africa or England? Pillar Thomas Gallo made his choice: “I would like to have the opportunity to take our revenge on England.»
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