Stuart Barnes: I never thought I would describe the All Blacks as dumb, yet here we are

The epicentre of decision-making is at the breakdown. In rugby league you can run wherever you want, safe in the knowledge that the game stops to allow you to start again until that sixth tackle. In union, every millimetre covered by a player matters.

One step in the wrong direction, one step too far and there is Julian Montoya, the Pumas captain, waiting to ensnare the hapless Kiwi ball-carrier and claim the sort of penalties that New Zealand used to monopolise. Do a team commit numbers, do they risk going off their feet or coming in from the side? All split-second calls. The breakdown is a test of a team’s IQ. Argentina won the turnovers that mattered.

Montoya, the Leicester Tigers hooker, eclipsed the entire New Zealand back row, in which poor Ardie Savea has long been the standout player. With Marcos Kremer detailed to do a defensive job on him, the superb Savea was just about subdued.

Twice in the second half, Montoya latched on to the opposing ball-carrier to win a penalty. First, when the All Black second row combined in an effort to shift and then when Richie Mo’unga was wrapped up with not a single black shirt in sight of their fly half.

Montoya battled on until the final minute. Hookers are not supposed to last this long on the pitch, but here was a superhuman performance – one of the great Argentine displays.

As for the opposing captain, I don’t know when Sam Cane left the field. Indeed, for all I know, he was there at the end, as anonymous in the South American celebrations as he had been for however many minutes he was on the field. His one notable moment was a tackle off the ball on Pablo Matera that gave away a penalty that the host broadcasters described as “pretty harmless, really”.

It wasn’t harmless from the New Zealand perspective, though, because it was a pointless piece of frustrated foul play that stretched Argentina’s lead to seven points. Not so much “pretty harmless” as staggeringly stupid.

The great Richie McCaw was always on the scene but, as the referee Wayne Barnes once told me, he was so quick-witted it was impossible to know whether his actions at the breakdown crossed the line of legality. The flanker was the hardest of men to referee, because of his profound understanding and timing.

The double World Cup-winning open-side flanker should have been penalised far more than he was; that he wasn’t was testament to his brilliant rugby brain. When his All Blacks were defending their own goal line, McCaw and Jerome Kaino would stick in a hand to slow the speed of opposition ball. From outside centre, Conrad Smith would step ever so slightly out of line and often make the try-saving tackle, interception or block. Cynical? More than any team this century. And there’s not a team in the world who wouldn’t have emulated them had they possessed the intellect to get away with these acute decisions.

Not only were the crumbling Kiwis eclipsed at the breakdown, they were caught offside twice to the tune of six points in the second half. There was a time when their defensive line would all be onside bar the darting Smith. This lot ambled, herd-like, over the gainline.

Only Savea has offered a “follow me” type of leadership through the worst period in New Zealand’s history. Three defeats in their most recent four home fixtures and six losses in eight games is no “blip”. The blips were the first-Test win against Ireland and the brave victory in Johannesburg two weeks ago.

The warning signs have long been evident. Cane is neither capable of captaining New Zealand nor wearing the open-side jersey. Both roles require a rugby intellect that is beyond him.

Alas, the same can be said for the New Zealand head coach, the extremely decent Ian Foster. The charge sheet against him is long, with the retention of his skipper an act that was as mad as it was mistakenly honourable. Where Argentina offered leadership, all New Zealand possess are ghosts from a glorious past.

– The Sunday Times

Originally published as Stuart Barnes: I never thought I would describe the All Blacks as dumb, yet here we are