The Pumas lost their way in the first half, reaching the interval 31-10 down. Then, after closing the gap to just seven points in the second half, they slipped off defending a couple of lineout mauls to lose by 17 points in Cordoba.
The defeat was Argentina’s third in succession to tier one opposition since their June 20 win over the British and Irish Lions in Dublin. They surrendered 2-0 in their home series with England and were then eclipsed by the All Blacks, with a win over tier two Uruguay their only crumb of comfort in recent weeks.
Ahead of next Saturday’s rematch with New Zealand in Buenos Aires, Montoya told reporters: “Our discipline cost us a lot of unforced errors, which gave them position and penalties. We shot ourselves in the foot with the penalties we were conceding, so when we look back on it, it hurts a lot.
“After all that, credit to New Zealand. They’re a good team that took advantage of every opportunity they had, and in the final minutes of each half, they scored very easily.
“Many of our mistakes were made in the final minutes of each half, where they scored more points against us. So, those minutes are where we clearly have to do better.
“Last year, it was the early part of each half when they scored very easily against us. This time it was the other way around.
“Clearly, the maul defence wasn’t up to par. We have to improve, but we win together, we lose together, so we have to regroup, recover, look inward, and we will come back.”
