NEW ZEALAND'S All Blacks hit Argentina with the force of a super quake in Wellington on Saturday, defeating them 93-8 in the first of two Tests. New Zealand led 46-3 at half time.
The capital has been dealing with an earthquake swarm for the past few days, but the only devastation has been to the ranks of the hapless Pumas who saw 14 tries scored against them.
Argentina, who have never beaten the All Blacks in 12 Tests, and only once extracted a draw, showed little sign of the team which last month defeated England.
On the shortest day of the year in New Zealand, it proved a long one for Argentina who gave away the first points with a penalty in the opening minutes.
Quick tries followed from Ian Jones and Tana Umaga but the game was flat with Argentina unable to give any real challenge to the All Blacks.
The Pumas only real attack came 20 minutes into the game but was brought to a crashing halt by veteran Zinzan Brooke, back in action in his 48th Test after a three week layoff for concussion.
The All Blacks, averaging more than a point a minute, were assisted by the Argentinians' inability to make the first tackle and Gonzalo Quesada's dismal day with the boot.
He missed several easy penalties, although he finally put his side on the board with a successful kick close to half line.
But the awesome nature of All Black play showed itself when they immediately replied with a brilliant length of the field run by local hero Umaga who off loaded to Josh Kronfeld for the try.
To make matters worse for Argentina the ball from the kick off was taken by Christian Cullen on the 22 who ran straight through the defence for a try.
For the Pumas the only comfort came from the knowledge that better teams and players have never stopped Cullen in the same position.
In the second half, Argentina made the fatal error of kicking to the All Blacks and quickly paid the price when Umaga, Jeff Wilson, Cullen and Spencer linked up to put captain Sean Fitzpatrick in for his trademark winger type try.
An hour into the game, Argentina tried not kicking away possession and the ball went through the backline for Tomas Solari to score.
But the All Blacks returned to their tryfest with such unlikely scorers as front rower Olo Brown.
Carlos Spencer ended the day breaking the New Zealand record for debut Test points - 33 in all.
