Tony Johnson

Not until we get into the next group of games will we have some perspective and context in which to put the first two rounds of the Rugby Championship.

The All Blacks’ forward strength will be tested when they take on the Pumas and their physicality will be tested against the Springboks.

A win in either away game will put the Bokke in a powerful position, the Wallabies will have to bounce back from their thumping defeat at Eden Park or face an exit from calculations, and we will find out how many of their bullets Argentina has fired already.

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In the meantime, we can certainly look back on a far more enjoyable second week of action. I guess a bit of fine weather will always help.

The All Black v Wallaby return match was preceded by the usual raft of “the end is nigh” stories, predicting the crash and burn of the All Black dynasty, the shattering of their aura and so on, following their rather limp effort in Sydney.

It then got off to a bizarre start with the fireworks following the haka, when it appeared as if someone had added a bit of napalm to the gunpowder mix.

Aaron Cruden was left kicking away what looked liked the remnants of an outback campfire just inside the 22, while a spectator was rushed off to hospital after being hit by shrapnel.

Fair to say the fireworks will be toned down from here on in, and rightly so. Waste of money.

And besides there were enough pyrotechnics in the game to satisfy the most hard-to-please fans.

Maybe that unsatisfying draw was a wake up call and, while commendably ending another All Black record attempt, what the Wallabies had really managed to do was poke a sleepy bear with a big stick.

If the All Blacks were angry it would not have been so much with the flak they copped after the muddling effort in game one, but with themselves for letting a chance at history slip. No matter how badly they had played, they would not have needed to be much better to win.

And it was soon evident that Australia had also passed up on their best chance as they capitulated in the face of the controlled fury of the All Blacks.

No mistake, this Wallaby team has a lot of talent, and when they can get even a share of possession from a stable platform they will threaten any team, but their set piece was shaded, they were monstered on the gain line, and their rush defence was left grasping at shadows as the All Blacks popped passes into space, not into traffic as they had done in Sydney.

Richie McCaw was sin-binned for just the second time in his test career. Stop gasping!

Nine times out of ten an act of slapping the arm of a halfback at an early ruck outside the “red zone” would result in a penalty and a warning, but it seems the All Blacks are on a permanent warning right now and in the current climate McCaw took a needless risk.

His absence only served to galvanise the team though, and when he and Rob Simmons swapped places after the latter was binned for lifting a leg to pull down a maul, the damage was terminal for the Wallaby hopes.

It will be fascinating to see how Ewen McKenzie reacts to this soul-destroying defeat.

Sydney gave rise to real optimism, but Eden Park was like popping a party balloon with a nail gun.

For a start, McKenzie will need to reassess his inside back combination. It is painfully obvious that Nick Phipps and Bernard Foley are a better option than the erratic Nic White and Kurtley Beale, and yet McKenzie seems reluctant to start the Waratahs combo. Is it possible that the success of the ‘Tahs and the growing popularity of their coach Michael Cheika are already starting to play on his mind?

His biggest concern, though, should be the performance of his forwards. The likes of Wycliff Palu and Sekope Kepu simply were not factors and, for all the penalties he tends to give away, Scott Higginbotham could surely add some steel and starch to the starting 15.

Already the Wallabies can’t win the Bledisloe Cup, the trophy they covet most outside “Billy” Ellis, and a loss to either the Pumas or Boks at home will mean they almost certainly couldn’t win the championship either, which is not the sort of possible scenario they were contemplating a week ago.

The Springboks have taken the early lead in the championship without looking like their best, and that can be a glass half full, or half empty scenario.

Me, I’d be happy for the wins. There is merit to the sentiments posted in response to my preview piece a few weeks ago, pointing out that the Boks strike the Pumas when they are fresh and raring to go, and the Wallabies and All Blacks have tended to meet them when a bit of the sting has gone out of them.

What is great is that the Pumas are looking competitive, and they have gone back to the Bajadita, the almost spiritual scrum and forward drive that marked their excellent 2007 World Cup campaign.

Juan Martin Hernandez looks to be finally recapturing the form that made him one of the players of that tournament, Manuel Montero has given them power and agility on the left wing and Joaquin Tuculet is in sparkling touch at full-back.

So to beat them, especially to have to come from well behind in some difficult circumstances in a remote venue, should not be sneezed at.

But clearly Heyneke Meyer has a few urgent work-ons.

The scrum was in trouble from the start. Now I am no expert in the dark arts, but someone who knows more than me reckons that to pin all the blame on the props, as appears to be happening, would be wrong.

For sure, Gurthro Steenkamp seemed to be having a lot of trouble with Ramiro Hererra, whom the Aussies would describe as being built like a brick out-house, but a couple of times the locks seemed to split apart under pressure and the loose forwards were guilty of disengaging when the scrum started to backpedal.

These are things that can be put right at training and, again, context will be required. The Wallabies and All Blacks are unlikely to scrummage quite like the Pumas.

Aside from that, ball security was a big issue, and one-on-one tackles were missed, and that put the team under constant pressure.

But the big positive was the way players were able to come off the bench and help the team out of a tight spot. Marcel Coetzee was the obvious example, and it’s hard to understand why he didn’t start, while Morne Steyn’s goal kicking under pressure was certainly useful.

The Pumas didn’t have that impact from their subs, and their fitness in the last quarter remains an issue, but they are a better team now than they have looked since coming into the Rugby Championship, and hopefully free of the internal bickering that split them last year.

Surely their first win is drawing nearer. They won’t win this tournament, but they could yet play an influential role in determining who does.