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The All Blacks repelled a muscular Argentina challenge 33-15 in La Plata to set up a Test against South Africa next week to find the winners of the Rugby Championship.

Their fourth try in the last move of the game to wing Ben Smith handed New Zealand a bonus point, putting them on the front foot heading into the tournament-decider in Johannesburg next Sunday (NZT).

The unbeaten All Blacks are five points clear on the standings and need only to secure a bonus point against the Springboks – who earlier beat Australia 28-8 in Cape Town – to defend the inaugural Rugby Championship title they won last year.

South Africa, who have a superior points differential, must also score four tries in the process, something All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said could create opportunities for his own team.

“Our guys have already started talking about it so I don’t think there will be any problem getting them up,” he said.

Hansen’s team scored three tries in the last 28 minutes against the Pumas, whose powerful forward pack dominated the first half in conditions made greasy by rain at the start of the Test.

The hosts trailed 11-9 at halftime and led 12-11 soon after the break when first five-eighth Nicolas Sanchez slotted the fourth of their five penalties.

However, opposite Aaron Cruden put the visitors back in front with his third penalty before tries to flanker Sam Cane and Smith in the 52nd and 56th minutes virtually made the game safe.

“They’re a side that’s getting better all the time. They’re very, very good up front and they tried to play a bit of rugby today and played it quite well.

“We had to work for it and the bonus point at the end was exactly that, a big bonus for us.”

The bonus point appeared beyond the visitors, particularly when wing Julian Savea botched a try after leading the chase from a grubber kick.

Savea, who scored New Zealand’s only first half try through a brilliant 70m solo run, spilled the ball metres short of the line when trying to pick it up.

However, it didn’t matter as Smith grabbed his second in the 79th minute after bulldozing over the top of Sanchez from close range to bag his ninth try in eight Tests this year.

The match was a far cry from last year’s equivalent fixture when the All Blacks won 54-15.

The hosts dominated the early scrums and forced New Zealand into conceding a host of penalties both there and at the breakdown, where halfback Aaron Smith was constantly harassed.

Hansen said the scrum problem could attributed to a groin injury suffered by tighthead prop Owen Franks, who was replaced at halftime by the impressive Charlie Faumuina.

Among the best for the All Blacks were centre Conrad Smith and second five-eighth Ma’a Nonu, who were starting their 50th Test together. That equalled the world record as a midfield combination held by Ireland’s Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy.

Conrad Smith said keeping their patience was the key to victory.

“They’re a tough team to break down. Everyone’s struggled to do it this year.”

The Test was marred by a spectator shining a laser on the ball and surrounding area when Cruden was lining up his conversion attempt of Savea’s try.

It mirrored an incident at the same venue last year when a laser was shone in Cruden’s face.

New Zealand vs Australia Live Stream self-confidence and trust in their physical presence. But they will need all of this – plus more – to beat the All Blacks on Saturday, says former captain Stirling Mortlock.

“That’s the reality,” Mortlock, the Wallabies 2007 World Cup captain, said on Sunday.New Zealand vs Australia Live

“[The All Blacks] are that good – that even when you have that physicality and that presence, when you rip in at the breakdown and do have that momentum for large periods of time of the game, they usually find  a way to still be in the game, if not leading.”

No easy task: Stirling Mortlock says the Wallabies need to play to their best even to have a hope of beating the All Blacks. Photo: Mal Fairclough

As were so many, the 80-Test veteran was impressed by the Brumbies and Waratahs in their Super Rugby semi-final square off, and especially with how the Waratahs came out victors and then went on to beat the Crusaders in Sydney to win the title.

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“Both of those teams have made inroads in their physicality in their set-piece, which historically has been a bit of a concern for the Australian team,” Mortlock said.

“But I think [the Waratahs’] physicality and confidence and their defensive pattern was the best out of an Australian provincial team I have seen for quite some time. It was the first time … in a long time I have seen an Australian team matching it physically, dominating physically, the opposition.”

Mortlock hopes that dominance will transfer into the Wallabies game.

But he believes that against the All Blacks at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, where the Waratahs won their Super Rugby crown, this alone will not be enough.

Of the 16 Tests he played against the All Blacks, Mortlock – who was also in the Wallabies’ last Bledisloe Cup-winning team, in 2002 – was in the losing side 12 times.

But of the four games that ended in wins against the All Blacks, three were at Homebush – including a 2003 Test in which he scored an intercept try that helped the Wallabies beat the All Blacks 22-10 in the World Cup semi-final.

Based on the Wallabies’ progress since Ewen McKenzie became coach a year ago, including a 3-0 Test series win over France in June, Mortlock believes the Wallabies can beat the All Blacks for the first time since August 2011, and for the first time in Sydney since July 2008.

Mortlock, for all his respect for the All Blacks, even believes the Wallabies could win the Bledisloe Cup.

The 37-year-old has not forgotten his own satisfaction in lifting the Bledisloe Cup in 2002.

“I didn’t think I wouldn’t get a chance to grab hold of it again,” he said. “But I’m pretty damn excited that this year is hopefully the year we get it back.”

Mortlock says the impact of a packed crowd at ANZ Stadium containing mostly Wallabies supporters should not be underestimated – as he says the Super Rugby final showed.

“Watching the Crusaders lineout struggle to get their calls in is a great indicator the crowd is engrossed in the game, contributing to the cauldron [atmosphere],” he said. “When you are playing before a home crowd when they are that into the game, it’s a massive boost. That is what it should be. We are talking Test rugby … Bledisloe Cup. It doesn’t get much bigger than that.”

Sydney – Wallabies fans will be hoping that Australia’s superlative Super Rugby season, capped by a maiden title for the New South Wales Waratahs on Saturday, will be a springboard to further success in the test arena this year.

And international success for Australian rugby outside the World Cup is measured in only one way – victories over New Zealand and the return of the Bledisloe Cup for the first time since 2002.

It is a tempting leap of logic. A Waratahs side packed with Wallabies pips an All Blacks-laden Canterbury Crusaders to win a maiden provincial title at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.

Therefore, goes the thinking, Australia should have the edge in the opening match of the Rugby Championship at the same arena in two weeks’ time.

It sort of worked in 2011 when the Queensland Reds beat the Crusaders in the Super Rugby final in Brisbane and the Wallabies returned to Lang Park to prevail 25-20 in one of their two Tri-Nations tests against New Zealand that year.

It was not enough to reclaim the Bledisloe Cup, however, and in the World Cup semi-finals a couple of months later the All Blacks put Australia firmly back in their box with a 20-6 victory on their way to claiming the Webb Ellis Trophy.

The Brisbane win remains the last time Australia beat the All Blacks, although they did earn an 18-18 draw at the same ground in 2012 to prevent New Zealand from claiming the record for most consecutive victories by a tier one nation.

The Wallabies will certainly be in better condition than the hotchpotch outfit injuries forced Robbie Deans to put out that day when they again try to stop the All Blacks snaring that record 18th win in Sydney on August 16.

And there is little doubt that the likes of flyhalf Bernard Foley, who kicked the last-gasp winner on Saturday, and centre Adam Ashley-Cooper, who scored a brace of tries in the final, will have more self-belief when they pull on the gold jersey.

“It’ll have a huge impact on that game, I believe,” former Wallaby and Waratah Phil Waugh told Fox Sports TV on Sunday.

Only in his absence is his importance to the All Blacks genuinely appreciated.

Even in the modern game, loose-head props are as influential as prominent openside flankers or quality first five-eighths.

Recent changes to the scrum laws place immense forces on the No.1′s shoulders. Anyone in this role with poor technique or lack of strength is now, more than ever, brutally exposed

Over the past 12 years, during 110 tests, Woodcock has been that cornerstone; the rock of the All Blacks’ scrum.

It’s far from glamorous, yet incredibly significant. Without a stable or dominant scrum any team virtually folds; any form of continuity is near impossible.

For the opening Rugby Championship test in Sydney on August 16, though, Woodcock is almost certain to be absent.

His shoulder injury is being given time to recover, but there is a chance it may need surgery, which would rule him out for the remainder of the season.

Make no mistake, the Wallabies will be grateful to see his name missing.

Much of the All Blacks’ 11-year stranglehold over the Wallabies, who last won the Bledisloe Cup in 2003, can be attributed to a supreme set piece and general forward pack dominance.

”That’s something we’re going to have to earn and work hard for,” All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster said yesterday as the squad, minus the Crusaders contingent, assembled for a two-day camp in Auckland.

”They’re a big pack now and they’ve made some real improvements through their set piece and ball carrying. It’s not going to be given to us.”

Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie says the All Blacks don’t have a mortgage on the Bledisloe Cup but warned his players to be on guard for New Zealand mind games.

After more than a decade of trans-Tasman misery, Australia will head into the first Test against New Zealand on August 16 with confidence high on the back of a seven-match winning streak.

But in Sydney they’ll have to contend with a hungry All Blacks side vying for a world record 18th-consecutive Test win.

McKenzie says the blockbuster billing is tailor-made for hype and expectation to go through the roof, with outspoken All Blacks coach Steve Hansen a likely ringleader.

“I noticed he was spritely against England (last week), so he’s warming up, yes,” said McKenzie.

“Coaches like myself who don’t have to run on the field might say things at times to make things interesting … the talk ends up getting done by people that don’t have to actually go out there and play the game.

When it comes to rivalries in international rugby, there is one series that stands above all others: Wallabies versus All Blacks. For nearly 80 years, Australia and New Zealand rugby sides have contested the Bledisloe Cup, now an annual competition between the two nations that forms part of the Tri Nations competition. Literally and figuratively, it is the single biggest trophy in rugby union.

The Bledisloe Cup was named after NZ Governer-General Lord Bledisloe in 1931 after a match between the All Blacks and Wallabies at Eden Park, Auckland. Contested on an irregular basis during its early years, the Bledisloe Cup was initially dominated by the All Blacks, with the Wallabies securing the first victory at the SCG in 1934.

Annual Bledisloe Cup clashes between the Wallabies and All Blacks commenced in 1981, and the series has moved from strength to strength since then. After four consecutive All Black series victories, the 1986 Wallabies, led by Nick Farr-Jones and David Campese, recorded their first victory in 37 years.

As rugby moved into professionalism during the mid-1990s, and television exposure continued to increase, coverage of the Bledisloe Cup reached new levels, culminating in the ‘Greatest Test Ever Played’ in 2000, when nearly 110,000 spectators watched Jonah Lomu crash over in the closing minutes for a 39-35 in an unforgettable match.