Whitelock: All Blacks win over Wales ‘pretty special’
Stand-in All Blacks captain Sam Whitelock dodged his yellow-tinged bullet to complete a hugely satisfying first day at the office in charge of the good ship All Blacks.
That’s why, following their 33-18 victory over Wales to bring the curtain down on their year in style, the normally taciturn Cantabrian was practically rolling out the adjectives to describe a display he had to admit was pretty damn satisfying.
Fair enough. The All Blacks had to soak up a mountain of Welsh pressure through a dominant first 40. It was a minor miracle that Whitelock and his men went into the sheds with a 12-11 lead to work off, testament to a fabulous defensive effort until all but the final minute of the half.
But, as they are wont to do, they dug themselves out of a tight spot rather impressively, running in three second-half tries (two to man of the match Rieko Ioane) to complete the tour undefeated, notch an 11th victory of the season and take their Welsh win streak to 30.
‘‘There was a lot of pride looking at the defence in that first 40-odd minutes,’’ reflected Whitelock. ‘‘We got two opportunities and scored twice. That’s pretty special. The boys took their chances when we got them, and after halftime we came out and lifted again. That’s what we got asked to do, and it’s awesome when you can go out and do it.’’
Whitelock said he enjoyed the chance to stand at the arrowhead of the haka (‘‘I did a little bit extra homework on the haka this week’’) and to lead his team out (regular skip Kieran Read absent with a back problem), but not the 68thminute yellow card he received for an infringement under pressure.
‘‘It’s never nice sitting down. The beauty was the scrum still went really well and I don’t think we had a lineout. The boys adapted really well.’’
Coach Steve Hansen said it was a rewarding victory,.
‘‘It was a good reflection of where we were at this week. We put a lot of hard work in, we trained smart with lots of energy, and it reflected some of the stuff we did earlier in the year.
‘‘We needed it because Wales played particularly well and it was a good game of rugby.’’
Most satisfying aspect? The coach had special praise for both his wings (four tries between them), but went elsewhere with his initial assessment.
‘‘We defended really well. In that first half we couldn’t get our hands on the ball. Then after halftime we lifted the tempo and got our share of the momentum, and when we got that we started to take the opportunities. We didn’t miss too many.’’
He also reserved special praise for flanker Sam Cane, who made a team-high 21 tackles and put in a big shift in some of the less celebrated parts of the game.
‘‘I thought he was outstanding,’’ added Hansen.