Pumas star boils over, refuses to shake All Black's hand

Puma's No. 8 Pablo Matera capped off a night to forget by refusing to shake All Blacks replacement hooker Dane Coles' hand following Argentina's 53-3 loss in Hamilton.

Coles took the field in the 62nd minute as a replacement for starting hooker Samisoni Taukei'aho and was in the heart of the action during a few late-match shoving matches with the Pumas.

Matera's frustrations boiled over past the final whistle when the sides assembled for the post-game handshakes.

When the All Blacks hooker went to shake Matera's hand he found himself reaching for thin air and instead received a firm shove to the shoulder by the South American loose forward.

It's unclear what upset Matera, but in the dying stages of the match the Pumas star reacted strongly to some words that appeared to come from replacement Coles - a reputed on-field trash talker - as a scuffle broke out between the two teams.

All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan said it was out of character for Matera, who he worked with at the Crusaders.

"I'm not sure what happened there," Ryan said. "Joe and I got our one wrong in the coaches' box too. Pablo was in the shed afterwards. That's pretty out of character for him to be fair. I'm sure they'll move on. They're both competitive men."

The All Blacks claimed seven tries in all to complete the bonus-point victory that revives their Rugby Championship hopes. Two of those tries came while the All Blacks were reduced to 14 men following Fletcher Newell's yellow card to emphasise their total dominance.

The win propelled the All Blacks to the top of the Rugby Championship standings, where they'll remain after the Wallabies were soundly beaten by the Springboks at Sydney.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission