New Zealand centre Ryan Crotty hopes the world champions have learned their lesson from last month’s home defeat by South Africa as they seek to re-establish their Rugby Championship dominance over the Springboks in Pretoria at the weekend.
“There were a few learnings for us out there. We were feeling good when we were 14 points up and we let them back in,” Crotty said yesterday of the shock 36-34 loss in Wellington.
“They created a bit of pressure but we let them back into the game. We could have executed better down the stretch.
“We always believed we were going to get it done but we didn’t and so that hurts.”
Crotty suggested New Zealand’s lines of communication had broken down at times against the Springboks.
“As a leadership group, we learnt just how important our communication is out there (on the field) so that we can make good decisions in terms of our game plan,” he told a news conference as the All Blacks continued their preparation for Saturday’s test at Loftus Versfeld.
The match is the last for both nations in this year’s Rugby Championship which New Zealand secured thanks to their 35-17 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
Prop Owen Franks said there was still plenty to play for against South Africa even with the title in the bag.
“You can’t beat a test in Pretoria, hopefully it’s a sellout. I haven’t played in a sold out stadium there since 2009 against the Bulls and it’s an awesome atmosphere,” he said.
Organisers said last month that all 50,000 tickets had been sold for the game.
Argentina make Three changes for Wallabies visit 
Argentina recalled winger Ramiro Moyano as they made three changes for Saturday’s Rugby Championship test with Australia, who need to win the match to avoid the wooden spoon.
Moyano missed the 35-17 loss to New Zealand last Saturday due to a rib complaint but has been drafted into the 30-man squad as a replacement for Bautista Delguy, who will be out for three weeks with a shoulder injury, the Argentine Rugby Union said in a statement.
Coach Mario Ledesma also included blindside flanker Santiago Grondona in place of the injured Tomas Lezana and winger Manuel Montero for Matias Osadczuk, who was released to play for Argentina’s second string side in a tournament in Uruguay.
The Pumas host Australia in Salta on Saturday in their last Rugby Championship match of the season. Argentina are three points ahead of Australia, who have won only one of their five matches in the competition this season and were surprisingly beaten 23-19 by the South Americans when the teams met in Queensland last month.
New Zealand wrapped up the Rugby Championship title last weekend when they beat the Pumas in Buenos Aires.
Squad:
1-Matias Alemanno, 2-Gonzalo Bertranou, 3-Emiliano Boffelli, 4-Sebastian Cancelliere, 5-Agustin Creevy, 6-Tomas Cubelli, 7-Jeronimo De la Fuente, 8-Bautista Ezcurra, 9-Diego Fortuny, 10-Santiago Garcia Botta, 11-Santiago Gonzalez Iglesias, 12-Santiago Grondona, 13-Ramiro Herrera, 14-Marcos Kremer, 15-Martin Landajo, 16-Tomas Lavanini, 17-Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 18-Juan Cruz Mallía, 19-Pablo Matera, 20-Santiago Medrano, 21-Manuel Montero, 22-Julian Montoya, 23-Matias Moroni, 24-Ramiro Moyano, 25-Matias Orlando, 26-Javier Ortega Desio, 27-Guido Petti, 28-Nicolas Sanchez, 29-Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 30-Juan Pablo Zeiss.