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Cape Town - Nothing has changed for the All Blacks in preparing to play their second Rugby Championship Test against Argentina in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
While Argentina's traditional set-piece strength had been targeted by opposing teams this year, the All Blacks needed only to recall the scrummaging test they were put to by the Pumas, especially in the second half of their Buenos Aires Test last year, to be well aware of what to expect this time, assistant coach Ian Foster said on Tuesday.
They also realised the Pumas had not beaten New Zealand in a Test yet and it was part of living up to the All Blacks' legacy by not allowing it to happen on their watch. But they were up against a side that was a proud nation who had beaten nearly every other nation and who were passionate about trying to beat the All Blacks.
"We don't go out with a fear of having to defend that so much, it's more of an excitement," Foster told the All Blacks' official website.
"It's about us playing as good as we can and that's our goal for Saturday."
While the All Blacks are without half of their leadership group, the leaders who are there have to keep the group growing.
"We've got the people driving that, the players are excited by it and we are as a management team as well," said Foster.
That had been reflected in a good training session on Tuesday and that had been driven by those leaders with the team.
"The other guys there, we don't want them to go and pretend to be someone that they're not or to do something they don't normally do," added Foster.
"We just want them to lead by playing well, preparing well Sunday to Friday and playing well on Saturday and that's their job."
It was important to prepare the All Blacks to have the ability to cope quickly and adapt to what opposing sides threw at them, and there was always something different that teams tried.
Argentina had surprised them in a few areas and they had played well in New Plymouth in their last outing to put the All Blacks under a lot of pressure.
"With 60 minutes gone it was a very tight Test match so clearly they got under our skin a little bit and we remember that and it's meant that we've got plenty of motivation to prepare thoroughly this week," explained Foster.
The Pumas had become a force in world rugby in the last five years and like all teams they faced the challenge of performing consistently week in and week out.
"I know we judge teams hard when they don't quite get it right one week then get it right the next week but that just shows how hard it is to do that," said Foster.
"So we're full of respect for what Argentina has done. We pick up stuff out of their game that we like and put into ours so they're a good team.
“They had the ability to play at pace, play out wide and to play teams through the middle and they did it well.”
