Prop Owen Franks says the All Blacks will be up against the best scrum in the world when they face Argentina in Buenos Aires on Saturday.
Franks admitted that while he believed the scrum battle between the All Blacks and Springboks had been ‘fairly even’ a fortnight ago, they had some things to work on before fronting Los Pumas.
‘I’ll always treat them with the same amount of respect,’ Franks told the All Blacks website. ‘As far as I’m concerned, going into this week they’ve got the best scrum in the world, that’s the ability they have to be able to turn it on.’
Lock Scott Barrett shared the same sentiments saying this would be a different challenge from the one in Nelson between the sides earlier in the year because Argentina will have home-ground advantage this time.
‘They’ll be fired up and they are a skilful team with a good forward pack so it’s going to be a big challenge and we’ve got to prepare for that.
‘Having a week off after the loss to South Africa meant there was time to stew over the outcome while there was also a bit of a little bit of an extra knot in the gut to get back on track and get a win.’
Meanwhile, Argentina were dealt a blow after wing Ramiro Moyana was ruled out of the match against the All Blacks due to a rib injury he sustained against the Wallabies a fortnight ago.
Photo: Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images
