Baby Blacks start with big win

The Baby Blacks have humiliated Japan with a 67-0 win, making a strong start to their title defence at the World Rugby under-20 Championship in France.

New Zealand scored 11 tries in Narbonne yesterday as their power and pace proved too much for a Japanese team which was returning to the top tier of the championship after winning the second division last year.

New Zealand’s support play was outstanding as their runners constantly made inroads on the fragile Japan defence. The outside backs had a field day with big centre Bailyn Sullivan a huge metre-eater. He scored the solo try of the day, taking a kick-off in the 21st minute and running most of the field for an outstanding try.

Wings Leicester Faingaanuku and Jamie Spowat benefited, with five tries between them.

‘‘We will be very happy with that,’’ New Zealand captain Tom Christie said after the win. ‘‘We will review it but on the whole I’m really happy.’’

Christie felt Japan had given his side a challenge at the breakdown that would be good moving forward, but he was still thrilled with the drive and skills of his own players.

‘‘Japan really challenged us. Maybe the score doesn’t reflect that but they competed hard at the breakdown and their maul was hard to stop. We’ll go back to the drawing board and have a look at the details and what we want to work on, and focus on us,’’ he said. Team New Zealand has gained an unexpected bonus from a heated bidding war for the free-to-air TV rights to broadcast the 2021 America’s Cup in Auckland.

TVNZ saw off TV3 owners Mediaworks to win the rights but appear to have paid an over-the-top amount that could be close to $3 million for the honour.

Stuff understands there is also a strong element of Team New Zealand’s sponsors being given on-air time under contra arrangements in the successful bid.

It is believed TV3 forced the state broadcaster to significantly increase their initial offer as they aggressively pursued the rights.