Opta Facts for NZ v Arg:
The All Blacks are unbeaten in their 22 encounters with Argentina, winning 21 and drawing just once in the second ever meeting between the sides in 1985.
o New Zealand have won all 12 home games against Argentina, scoring 77 tries in the process, an average of 6.4 per game.
o The All Blacks have won 10 of their 11 games at FMG Stadium, Waikato, winning their last five in a row at the venue.
o Argentina will be aiming to record back-to-back wins in The Rugby Championship for the first time ever after beating South Africa in their last match.
o The Pumas’ three victories in The Rugby Championship have come in their last six games in the competition, this after failing to win any of their first 17 (L16, D1).
o The All Blacks have not lost at home since September 2009 (v South Africa) winning 42 games in a row since.
o Julian Savea has scored eight tries against Argentina, his joint-most against a single opponent (level with England); should he score a hat-trick he would equal Richie McCaw and Ma’a Nonu (both 11 v Australia) for the most tries by a Tier One player against a single opponent.
o Savea has scored four hat-tricks in his Test career so far, of Tier One players only Jeff Wilson has scored more (5).
o New Zealand have conceded fewer than 10 points in each of their last three Tests, the last time they pulled off a longer such streak was in November 2008 with wins against Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and England in Europe.
o Beauden Barrett has been directly involved in more tries than any other player (4 – 1 try, 3 assists) in the competition so far and has also gained the most metres (157), beaten the most defenders (12) and made the joint-most clean breaks (5).
Heaps more stats here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/c...ZZN541JkNkcAhi41SkoEDyNan6ArSzZxO4E/file?dl=1
I found a couple of the lineout stats esp interesting:
Kieran Read (14) has won more lineout ball than any other player the RC, and more than Whitelock (6) & Retallick (4) combined.
Stephen Moore has a lineout throw success rate of 57% which is surely not good enough at this level (not saying it's all his fault but TPN's going at 83% which does suggest it's at least partly a Moore issue).