It’s always a big deal whenever New Zealand’s rugby team is toppled.

But for longer than some of the All Blacks’ players have been alive, there’s one venue at which it hasn’t been conquered. 

Eden Park is a rugby colossus, located in New Zealand’s largest city and home to the All Blacks. Many countries have tried to upend New Zealand inside the venue over the past three decades, but all have failed.

That could change if Argentina - which stunningly took down the All Blacks on New Zealand soil in each team’s first round of play in The Rugby Championship this past weekend - has another shocker up its sleeve.

The All Blacks’ consecutive streaks of Rugby Championship titles and unbeaten matches at Eden Park both are on the line this weekend, as a hungry Los Pumas squad will look to become the first team in years to defeat New Zealand at its most iconic ground.

Need we say more about the stakes?

Here’s all you need to know ahead of New Zealand and Argentina’s highly anticipated rematch in Auckland as part of Rugby Championship play:

New Zealand

What would be worse for New Zealand than losing to Argentina?

Losing to Argentina in back-to-back matches - with one of those defeats coming at a venue where the All Blacks haven’t been beaten for 30 years.

New Zealand hasn't been conquered inside of the fortress at Eden Park since France did so in the summer of 1994. What followed has been 47 victories and two draws at the venue against 12 opponents. 

The All Blacks, no matter how they’ve been performing going into the match, always seem to enter another gear when they play at their de-facto home ground.

But the run has to end sometime, and while many probably are tipping old rivals such as South Africa or Australia to be the one to pull it off, Los Pumas now must be respected as a potential streak-ender following how they’ve performed against New Zealand over the past few years.

Those concerns have led first-year coach Scott Robertson to make four changes to the XV who were defeated 38-30 in Wellington in the opening round of this year’s Rugby Championship last weekend - which also, by the way, is a competition in which the All Blacks are four-time defending champions.

Two new wings start for New Zealand, as Will Jordan, who came off of the bench for the All Blacks last weekend in his first competitive match since the Rugby World Cup (after missing the entire Super Rugby season due to shoulder surgery), starts on the right, while Caleb Clarke - who had a strong year with the Blues in Super Rugby - starts on the left. 

Those two replace Sevu Reece and Mark Tele’a, respectively, with the latter name relegated to the bench.

Center Rieko Ioane also is back in the starting XV after coming off of the bench in Wellington, filling in for Anton Lienert-Brown. 

And with Ethan de Groot out at loosehead prop due to a neck injury, it’s a former Crusaders player under Robertson in Tamaiti Williams - not Ola Tu’ungafasi - who gets the nod to start in the front row. He and second-rower Sam Darry are the only players in the starting XV with less than 10 international caps.

Ardie Savea once again is captain, as Scott Barrett is out to continue recovering from a finger injury, but leadership in the side was something the All Blacks sorely lacked in the first Argentina test. It will be something they’ll seek in Auckland, too. That’s also probably a major reason why former New Zealand captain Sam Cane has been named to the bench, too, as his 95 caps and three Rugby World Cup trips give him plenty of credentials in the dressing room.

Argentina

For decades, a New Zealand-Argentina test was essentially a forgone conclusion before it even began.

Whether it was a tour from one of the teams, the Rugby Championship or the Rugby World Cup, the All Blacks never lost a match to Los Pumas from the first recognized test in 1985 to 2020 — a run of 29 consecutive matches.

But since Argentina finally ended New Zealand’s reign of dominance with its first victory over the All Blacks in the 2020 Tri Nations Series in Sydney, Los Pumas have shown this is a new era for both teams, for better or for worse.

All three Argentina wins against New Zealand have come in the past four years, with last weekend’s stunner in Wellington being the latest triumph the first win over the All Blacks from new coach (and legendary Los Pumas player) Felipe Contepomi.

A victory at Eden Park this weekend, however, would top all of those prior triumphs, as the decades of rugby titans coming to Auckland and faltering finally would come to an end in a way few likely would be expecting - but also a way that undoubtedly would be deserved.

Hooker Julian Montoya is back to captain Los Pumas after sitting out the Wellington test due to a rib injury, with back-rower Pablo Matera - who had a titanic performance against the All Blacks last weekend - being delegated vice captain, as he hopes to both help lead Argentina to its first back-to-back victories over New Zealand and get another win over his former coach at the Crusaders, who Matera helped lead to the Super Rugby title in 2022.

Ignacio Ruiz drops down to the bench with Montoya’s arrival, while Lucas Sordoni will be on the right side of the captain at tighthead prop, replacing Eduardo Bello. 

Franco Molina also has been sent to the bench in favor of a shifting Marcos Kremer, who goes from openside flanker to lock for the Auckland test, as Juan Martin Gonzalez (the starting No. 8 last weekend) replaces his former role in the meantime.

Joaquin Oviedo gets the nod at the No. 8 with Gonzalez’s shift after starting on the bench against the All Blacks last weekend, with the Argentine backline remaining unchanged. 

Agustin Creevy, the 39-year-old hooker and all-time Los Pumas caps leader, who scored the go-ahead try to put Argentina in front last weekend, is out of the 23 entirely, as Contepomi has opted with a 5-3 split on his bench, rather than the 6-2 bench seen in Wellington. 

Squads

New Zealand

1 Tamaiti Williams, 2 Codie Taylor (VC), 3 Tyrel Lomax, 4 Tupou Vaa’i, 5 Sam Darry, 6 Ethan Blackadder, 7 Dalton Papali’i, 8 Ardie Savea (C), 9 TJ Perenara, 10 Damian McKenzie, 11 Caleb Clarke, 12 Jordie Barrett (VC), 13 Rieko Ioane, 14 Will Jordan, 15 Beauden Barrett

Bench: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Josh Lord, 20 Sam Cane, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Anton Lienert-Brown, 23 Mark Tele’a

Argentina

1 Thomas Gallo, 2 Julian Montoya (C), 3 Lucio Sordoni, 4 Marcos Kremer, 5 Pedro Rubiolo, 6 Pablo Matera (VC), 7 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 8 Joaquin Oviedo, 9 Gonzalo Bertranou, 10 Santiago Carreras, 11 Mateo Carreras, 12 Santiago Chocobares, 13 Lucio Cinti, 14 Matias Moroni, 15 Juan Cruz Mallia (VC)

Bench: 16 Ignacio Ruiz, 17 Mayco Vivas, 18 Joel Sclavi, 19 Franco Molina, 20 Tomas Lavanini, 21 Lautaro Bazan Velez, 22 Tomas Albornoz, 23 Bautista Delguy