• New Zealand 28-9 Argentina

The winger Julian Savea scored two tries as New Zealand again struggled to put Argentina away before they eventually ground out a 28-9 win in a tightly contested Rugby Championship game at McLean Park in Napier on Saturday.

Liam Messam and Aaron Smith also scored tries for the All Blacks to secure a vital four-try bonus point, though the home side had a poor game with the boot. Beauden Barrett, making his first start at fly-half, kicked a penalty but missed four other kicks before he was replaced by Colin Slade, who kicked a penalty and a conversion, though he also missed a penalty.

The fly-half Nicolás Sánchez slotted three penalties for the Pumas, who were also unlucky to have a try to Leonardo Senatore inexplicably ruled out by the referee, Pascal Gaüzère, who said the No8’s charge down of a clearing kick was a knock-on.

“There are things that happen in the game. Unfortunately the referee didn’t see it, but that’s all,” the Argentina captain, Agustín Creevy, said, before adding that it could have changed the momentum. “But we had an excellent first half, then we made some easy mistakes with the tries they scored off the first phase.

“We didn’t take advantage of the situation when we did score. That would’ve been the difference and we could have been closer on the scoreboard.”

The All Blacks have struggled to put Argentina away in recent games in New Zealand and the pattern continued as heavy rain arrived in the late afternoon. Dropped balls and a tough forward battle were the predominant features of the match.

“Very happy with the final result,” the All Blacks coach, Steve Hansen, said. “We have played these guys three years in a row in not great conditions and this is the first time we have got a bonus point, so fairly happy to have picked that up.”

Barrett and Sánchez traded penalties midway through the first half before New Zealand managed to break down the Pumas’ defensive line with clever tactical kicking that Savea pounced on to score the first try.

Sánchez reduced the scoreline to 8-6 with his second penalty before the All Blacks gave themselves a massive confidence boost after the half-time hooter when they won a scrum against the head. Barrett broke the line, beat the cover defenders and fed Messam to extend the advantage to 13-6, a critical lead that gave them momentum heading into the second half.

Barrett then created Savea’s second try shortly after the break when he took the ball to the defensive line and popped a no-look pass to his Wellington team-mate to storm on to the ball and cross.

The match then descended into another arm wrestle before the decision that effectively killed off the Pumas’ chances. Trailing 18-9 they were putting pressure on the All Blacks deep in their own half. Senatore then charged down Ma’a Nonu’s clearing kick and raced away for a try, only for Gaüzère to call him back, to the surprise of many in the near sell-out crowd of 21,329.

The All Blacks shut the game down in the final 20 minutes when Slade kicked a penalty and No8 Kieran Read broke from an attacking scrum to feed scrum-half Smith for the bonus point try under the posts with less than 10 minutes remaining.

“Once you get four tries in conditions like this you’re going to be happy,” the All Blacks captain, Richie McCaw, said. “It was always going to be scrappy and there were patches there where we didn’t look after the ball but they stuck at it.

“We had an Argentina side who certainly came to play and they put real pressure on us at the contact area, but we expected that.

“There was a wee patch in the second half where we didn’t get much luck at scrum time but I’m proud of the ways the guys came back and won a couple of big scrums that resulted in tries and that was satisfying.”

Article source: http://truthdive.com/2013/07/24/Woman-who-boasted-of-threesome-with-Irish-rugby-stars-courts-online-abuse.html

• New Zealand 28-9 Argentina