Scott Robertson reflects on where it all went wrong for the All Blacks

New Zealand earned a comfortable 41-24 victory over Los Pumas in Cordoba last weekend on their Rugby Championship opener, but they were unable to follow that up with another win.

Felipe Contepomi's men were good value for their 29-23 success as it left every team in the competition with one win and one defeat from the two rounds so far.

Robertson started off by applauding their opponents, saying: "Well done to them, and congratulations, that's the first thing," before admitting: "Yeah, that hurts. Tough."

The All Blacks have once again struggled to hit their straps this year following a mixed 2024, but this was easily their worst display for quite some time.

There was a catalogue of errors from the visitors, with the Argentines dominating a number of areas throughout the 80 minutes.

Two particular issues stood out for Robertson - the aerial game and discipline - as they found themselves on the back foot for long periods of the game.

"We practiced all week, we knew it was coming, aerially. That's a good question [about execution], I am not sure I can answer it right now, why," he told Sky Sport.

"We wanted to play with a lot more care than that for Codie [Taylor], and put a show on to finish this tour. And we didn't get that. It wasn't what we wanted, we are going to have to look deep."

As for the disciplinary problem, it resulted in three yellow cards, all for rather cynical offences, as Will Jordan, Tupou Vaa'i and Sevu Reece were sent to the sidelines.

Jordan was yellow carded for impeding Mateo Carreras while Vaa'i and Reece were ordered off the field for deliberate knock-ons.

It has left Robertson with plenty to ponder looking ahead to the rest of the Rugby Championship and even the Test season.

They have hardly been convincing so far this year having been taken all the way by a severely understrength France side in July.

Although the All Blacks were relatively comfortable in the first Test against Argentina, they followed it up with an abysmal performance in Buenos Aires.

"Just hands out. Three yellow cards. They kicked all their penalties. We fought our way back into the game, but we weren't holding the ball for long periods of time," he said.

The results at the weekend - with the Springboks getting back on track with a victory over the Wallabies - nicely set up the much-anticipated Eden Park clash on September 6.

New Zealand have not lost at the iconic ground since 1994 and South Africa will be licking their lips after what they saw in Buenos Aires.

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