Pumas boss Cheika calls for consistency after All Blacks loss

Argentina coach Michael Cheika wants his Pumas side to show greater consistency after they followed their first-ever win over the All Blacks in New Zealand with a crushing 53-3 defeat in Hamilton on Saturday against the three-time world champions.

The Pumas started their Rugby Championship campaign with a win over Australia in Argentina before losing against the Wallabies in their next game. Their series against the All Blacks followed the same pattern to leave Cheika frustrated.

"We started off with a win, a loss, a win, a loss," said Cheika. "And we're saying: we've got to start putting some wins in a row together. Maybe we should have put three wins together.

"We just have to deal with what comes next and on our voyage to the World Cup today will be one of the days we get the most out of because we'll learn a lesson very clearly."

Despite the heavy defeat, Argentina are only a point behind New Zealand in the Rugby Championship standings with a pair of games against World Cup holders South Africa remaining for Cheika and his side.

"The edge was off us and every player and every coach will be in there trying to work on how we make it better," he said.

"We want to make sure we take all of the good things that have happened over the last three or four weeks across these series against Australia and New Zealand.

"(We need to) take the good bits that we've got along with the things that we need to improve from tonight and put them together for the next series in a couple of weeks.

"We've got an opportunity against the world champs in a couple of weeks and we've got to make sure we're in the right mindset."