An enthralling weekend of Rugby Championship action saw the All Blacks and Wallabies claim hard-fought home victories over the Springboks and Argentina, respectively.
New Zealand managed to make it an incredible 51 games unbeaten at Eden Park as they outlasted South Africa 24-17 in Auckland, while the Aussies scored a try after the hooter in Townsville to secure a famous 28-24 victory over Los Pumas.
Patchy Springboks fail Eden Park test
Springbok head coach Rassie Erasmus was proud of the way his team fought back from an early deficit, but he lamented that it was ever necessary in the first place.
“Overall, if you look at the 80 minutes, we had 15 really bad minutes [at the start] which led to a little disbelief,” Erasmus explained to Supersport.
“We came out after half-time with a bit more belief, and I thought the subs really injected some energy into the game.
“We’re all very disappointed and we realise people will be very gatvol of us and that we’ll take plenty of heat for this one, but we will be back next week.”
He continued: “It’s like any other loss. It was away from home against the world’s number one team, but it doesn’t make the loss any easier to take.
“Before this game we thought we’d go with more or less the same team next week [in Wellingon], but we’ll definitely make a few changes.”
Asked if the weight of history at Eden Park had proved too much for his charges, Erasmus was ambivalent, saying: “If we had won, we would probably have mentioned the history, but they managed to maintain their record at Eden Park and well done to them for that.
“It was a great challenge for us, but we didn’t achieve it. That said, we have another chance to face them next week, and that will be our focus next week.”
In contrast to the struggling visitors, home back-rower Ardie Savea celebrated his 100th Test on Saturday with a barnstorming performance that did not go unnoticed by his coaches and colleagues.
“I was just so pleased,” New Zealand boss Scott Robertson told reporters. “He’s a person that makes big plays and he sums them up beautifully. It was his moment on the 100th.
“He’s a guy that’s so mentally tough, physically tough, and just keeps getting up and he did reflect the Test match for us.”
All Black captain Scott Barrett added: “I’m personally proud of the way the rest of the 23 guys fronted up for Ardie.
“He’s a spiritual leader within our team. So we wanted to make that special.”
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Wallabies leave it late in Townsville
Over in Queensland, Australia huffed and puffed before finding a try six minutes after the final hooter to secure a morale-boosting, comeback win over a solid Argentinian outfit.
“That’s just not fair on the Pumas,” the Wallabies’ head coach Joe Schmidt admitted afterwards.
“They are such a good side. They made a couple of errors that let us off the hook. We’ve got to be conscious of that.
“Next week [in Sydney], that may not be the case and we’re going to have to make sure we roll our sleeves up during the week to be better in the first half. We know they’re going to be.”
On his team’s troubling knack for conceding penalties, Schmidt said: “Some of the penalties were really disappointing. I don’t think we needed to concede them.
“If we could tidy those things up alone, it gives them a little less access to the game, because they don’t need a whole heap of access. They are such a competitive team.”
Argentina boss Felipe Contemponi, meanwhile, lauded the home side’s bravery in going for a winner, telling local media: “I’m not surprised. If you want to go for it … and it paid off.
“They were convinced and they came once, twice, three times and we weren’t good enough to hold them back.”
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Hazel Camba 
Shameeka Voyiya 
Newsjustnews writers