TJ Perenara, under the selection spotlight like few other All Blacks ahead of the Pumas Test at Eden Park after the team’s failure in Wellington, has spoken about how he deals with the criticism aimed his way.
“I haven’t heard outside criticism because I haven’t listened to it,” he said.
The halfback had every reason to be philosophical after playing a starring role in the All Blacks’ 42-10 victory over Argentina last night.
Backed by head coach Scott Robertson, Perenara responded. His delivery was sharp, and his decision-making sound. He also played a major role in Will Jordan’s first try when darting down the blindside and offloading in a dazzling piece of skill.
But, after shaking hands with every reporter in his vicinity, Perenara, 32, could also have been excused for settling a score or two with the doubters who believed rookie Cortez Ratima was better suited for the No 9 jersey.
It’s clearly not his style.
Watch Scotty Stevenson and Pat McKendry break down last night's game on TVNZ+.
“There will be people out there who like the way I play and don’t like the way I play,” he said. “Regardless of the way I played this week… people will say I played poorly.”
A point to prove, though (and perhaps to those with pens and recorders in hand)?
“My job is to play well every game. I have a point to prove to myself week in and week out. The outside noise… I get that it’s about story-telling and entertaining and trying to build hype to a game and there are ups and downs with that. I get that. But my job isn’t to prove that wrong, it’s about doing my job to the best of my ability.”
There was more honesty from Perenara about what another defeat to the Pumas would have meant ahead of the All Blacks' trip to South Africa.
“It would have been an interesting Sunday and an interesting week back home if we had a performance like last week, so it’s pleasing.”
Perenara was very good, but he was also afforded a very good platform by a turbo-charged pack which scrummaged for fun at Eden Park.
Two early tackles from flankers Dalton Papali’i and Ethan Blackadder told their own story and once the Pumas coughed up their first possession on a rainy and windy mid-winter night, the tone had been set.
“We know that Argentina like to play a physical game with a lot of emotion so our ability to take parts of their game away from them, I thought we did really well, especially early," Perenara said.
“With that type of weather there are probably more collisions, more contact and more opportunities to do that stuff.
“How we played the game was smart. We didn’t play heaps in our own half, we kicked first phase a lot of the time and gave ourselves opportunities at the right end of the field.”
He added: “I thought today was a good answer to a really underwhelming game in Wellington.”
All boxes ticked, then?
“We ticked a lot of them. There’s never a game where we think ‘man, we did everything we wanted to do’. We can always critique and get better. It’s a professional sport and so we should.
“I thought our effort areas were good. We charged balls down… applied pressure. And conversely when they charged balls down our ability to get back and down on the ball and support that person on the ground was high. Those are areas we really care about.”
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