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Argentina’s place-kicking hero Santiago Carreras admits that starting on the bench gave him the perfect view of the opening exchanges of his side’s 29-23 win over New Zealand in The Rugby Championship on Saturday and allowed him to see where his side could beat the All Blacks.
It was Los Puma’s first win over New Zealand at home and comes 40 years after the All Blacks first toured Argentina. Remarkably it is Carreras’ fourth defeat of the three-time World Cup winners.
Carreras began among the substitutes but was called for after 13 minutes when starting flyhalf Tomas Albornoz went off injured.
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His first action was to link up with fullback Juan Cruz Mallia to break the line, and while that bore no fruit, he made a big difference with his boot. The new Bath signing scored two conversions and a penalty, including one six minutes from time that put the result out of reach.
“You never want to come on because a teammate is injured,” he said. “I had to come on, and from the bench, I saw that if we had the ball, we could hurt them. My message to the group was this: take care of the ball, and things would open up.
“Every time we played several phases, they committed penalties. It was what suited us.”
| # | Team | PL | W | L | D | PD | BP | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  New Zealand | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 2 | 06 |
| 2 |  Australia | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 05 |
| 3 |  South Africa | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | -8 | 0 | 04 |
| 4 |  Argentina | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | -11 | 0 | 04 |
New Zealand lost three players to the sinbin - Will Jordan and Tupou Vaa'I in the first half, and Sevu Reece, who sat out the last 10 minutes after a deliberate knock on that allowed Carreras to seal the win.
“Today the forwards did their job,” Carreras said. “Many people sometimes don't see it, but you have to win that battle in contact to make it easier on the outside.”
Juan Martin Gonzalez, and Gonzalo Garcia scored the tries for Felipe Contepomi’s team, with the latter’s coming after a Pablo Matera charge that personified their aggression and intensity.
Moreover, victory was vital for Los Pumas. It means all four teams have a win after the opening two weekends of the tournament. Argentina will now face Australia in back-to-back matches in Townsville and Sydney.
IN THE BALANCE
“Even though you're playing against the best and it's very difficult, they attacked, and we were quite aggressive. Then, in defence, we were good, organised, though we conceded some offside penalties,” Contepomi said with an eye on improvements.
“We lacked finesse. We had opportunities in the first half to score a few tries, but what the lads did was incredible.”
Argentina’s first win over New Zealand came in Sydney in 2021, and since then they have enjoyed victories in Christchurch and Wellington.
“We are a connecting thread in the great history of Los Pumas,” Contepomi said. “As a player, you live rugby to the fullest; as a coach, you try to live it in the best way possible. But this is theirs, Los Pumas 2025.
“This group has already done several of these things. Beating the All Blacks, beating them for the first time here. I think it's great. You shouldn't compare. You have to enjoy it.”