All Blacks centre Ryan Crotty is wary of the Pumas‘ dangerous “unstructured play” as they prepare to face them in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
New Zealand, who enter the match on the back of a shock loss to South Africa, will be eager to bounce back against a confident Argentina side.
And Crotty has stressed they must be cautious of their opponents, who have shown in recent weeks they can punish Rugby Championship rivals.
“We saw in Nelson how hard it was, right across their backline they are all skilful players,” he told the All Blacks’ official website.
“They like to razzle and their unstructured play is where they are most dangerous – their counter-attack, the bobbled ball – the hardball gets is when they are most dangerous. It’s all about shutting time and space down, giving them slow ball and giving our defence a chance to get set, number up and get line speed and take their time away so a big, big effort on defence this week.”
Nicolas Sanchez is one of the Pumas’ backs who is in fine form and Crotty admits he’s one player they will be looking to contain on Saturday.
“A lot of their play comes through his hands and through his direction so he’s certainly one man we’ll be keeping an eye on this week,” he said.