High-tempo game should help us beat Pumas, says McCaw

New Zealand plan to run the legs off Argentina with their high-tempo game in the Rugby Championship in Hamilton on Saturday and do not want to be dragged into an “arm wrestle” with the Pumas physical forwards, said All Blacks captain Richie McCaw.

The world champions are well aware of the challenge the South Americans pose after it took them more than 60 minutes to pull away in their clash in Wellington last year.

Santiago Phelan’s side were hammered 73-13 by South Africa in the first match of this year’s Championship but went down just 22-17 in Mendoza two weeks ago.

“Any time you play Argentina, if you hold the ball for a long time and put ball into space and get your decisions right it’s hard for teams to defend for long periods, so that’s certainly what we’re after,” McCaw told reporters in Hamilton on Friday.

“If you allow it to be a stop-start affair and go set piece to set piece it becomes an arm wrestle.

“Traditionally that’s probably the way Argentina have enjoyed getting stuck in, so we’ve got to make sure we don’t allow that to happen.”