IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Following the shock defeat to Argentina in the opening match of the Rugby Championship season, New Zealand will be desperate to bounce back.
The two teams meet again this week at Eden Park in Auckland in Round Two of the Southern Hemisphere tournament and loosehead prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi is more than confident this team can rectify their wrongs.
The 60-Test veteran said players were allowed to be frustrated at their 30-38 loss, but they could not let that intrude too much in their thinking.
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“It’s probably not going to help the way we prepare, but it’s good to keep that [frustration] in the back of your head,” Tu’ungafasi said.
From his propping vantage point, the 32-year-old said that 60 minutes before the first scrum, he had never seen a game without a scrum for so long.
Tu’ungafasi and Fletcher Newell came on as replacements in the 58th minute, which meant the starting front row forwards Ethan De Groot and Tyrel Lomax did not participate in any scrums.
“I could tell that the two boys that started [Ethan de Groot and Tyrell Lomax], or the front row, were hoping to have one scrum before they came off. It was unusual.
“I don’t think we’ll see that again for a long time.”
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Tu’ungafasi said a loss was never well received by the All Blacks.
“Over the weekend, we spoke about looking inwards, looking in the mirror, what we can do better as players. And there was the same message from the management; ‘what can they do better?’
“Coming into this week, there’s a little edge in the team preparing.”
A loss meant it was a different kind of edge, generated from an individual’s feeling of ‘what can I do better?’
“The whole squad felt it as well. The boys not playing are doing the same thing – they were saying, ‘What could we have done better to prepare the boys for that game?’
“Who knows what my role is for this week, but if I don’t get an opportunity to put the jersey on that’s going to be my mindset.”
The All Blacks had made things hard for themselves.
“If you look at the first quarter of that game, we know we played how we wanted to. We put them [Argentina] under a lot of pressure, and we scored points.
“I have no doubt we are going to be better this week.”
Source: All Blacks
