New Zealand coach Steve Hansen couldn’t be a happier man after his side claimed the Rugby Championship trophy with a 35-17 win over Argentina on Sunday morning.
The All Blacks led 21-3 at half-time and scored first in the second half through substitute Patrick Tuipulotu to effectively end the match as a contest.
Hansen, though, believes there is still some room for improvement ahead of their clash against the Springboks at Loftus this weekend.
The Kiwi mentor says: “We were better [than we were in the 36-34 defeat to South Africa in Wellington three weeks ago].
“But you don’t go from naught to 100 straight away. There will be some more learnings for us, but when you look at who was out there on the park at the end, it was a pretty young group, so you have to be really pleased with how they coped
“I thought our kicking was better, maybe not as accurate, but we kicked to the right places, and at the right times, a lot more than we did a couple of weeks ago.”
Argentina – Tries:
Tomas Cubelli and Emiliano Boffelli; Conversions: Nicolas Sanchez (2); Penalty: Sanchez.
New Zealand – Rieko Ioane (2), Waisake Naholo, Patrick Tuipulotu and Anton Lienert-Brown; Conversions: Beauden Barrett (4) and Richie Mo’unga.