Ardie Savea: 'We're All Blacks, we've got to bring that every week'

Captain Ardie Savea was delighted with the All Blacks’ demolition of Argentina but urged his team to produce that performance on a consistent basis.

New Zealand put in their best display under Scott Robertson as they hammered Los Pumas 42-10 to kick-start their Rugby Championship campaign.

The All Blacks scored six tries in total as they responded excellently to their shock 38-30 defeat in Wellington last weekend.

They went some way to silencing the critics and, in the process, kept themselves in the Rugby Championship title hunt.

“We said all week about looking at ourselves in the mirror and we took it day by day but, you know, we’re All Blacks, we’ve got to bring that every week,” Savea told Sky Sport NZ.

“We can’t rely on a loss to get that response from us, we’ve got to turn up every week and do that.”

In atrocious conditions, New Zealand dominated from the start and went into the interval with an insurmountable 35-3 advantage.

Unlike last weekend, their decision-makers took control of the contest with TJ Perenara, Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett all impressing.

“It’s about playing in the right areas of the field. I thought Damian and Baz [Barrett] controlled the game really well, and it allowed us forwards to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We did that and we got success from it,” the number eight said.

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For the second game in a row, Savea took on the captaincy in the absence of Scott Barrett and this week certainly went much better than the last.

“Leaders have always got to lead, and that’s the responsibility as a leader. What a privilege and honour to have that. If the leaders lead for us, the boys will follow,” he said.

“I’m proud of the men tonight; everyone across the board, from the management to the boys that were playing – it set us up well this week.”

The All Blacks’ victory in Auckland made it 50 games unbeaten at Eden Park, with their last reversal coming 30 years ago.

“We shouldn’t just rely on Eden Park, we want to win every week, every stadium wherever we are, and that’s the mindset for us,” Savea added.

Wing Will Jordan was one of the heroes, touching down twice to make it a staggering 33 tries in as many Tests.

“It was a great performance from the boys tonight. We wanted to start fast, start strong; we did that and then held on in the end there,” Jordan said.

“I was just trying to get involved a little bit. It was tough to get it out wide, so I was trying to get busy.

“The first [try] was a great bit of play by TJ down the short-side and then some good shape for the second one, so it was stuff we worked on during the week. It was good to see it come out on the park.”

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