All Blacks rejoice in retreat Australia fair
YOU could only admire how emphatic the All Blacks were.
Words such as siege and pressure had been given a pretty good work-out this week. New Zealand coach Steve Hansen happily threw those at the Wallabies but it would be generous to say they didn’t apply to his team as well.
Arriving in Sydney on Sunday, staying in a new location, the team’s poor record here, the listening device revelation; they all spoke of a team on edge.
Two-two world champions don’t often change things up.
But Hansen decided that this team should and then awaited a response. He got one all right. From the time second fiveeighth Ryan Crotty chugged in to score in the left corner in the sixth minute, until wing Waisake Naholo crossed in the 39th, the All Blacks played rugby that Australia could only deam of.
This had been billed - and probably rightly so - as a game that New Zealand could lose and here the were leading 32-3 after the first 40 minutes.
They didn’t have it all their own way. Hooker Codie Taylor was concussed in the third minute and had to be replaced by Dane Coles.
On Thursday we were told Coles was only in Australia to receive treatment on his injured ribs and had never been in danger of plying.
Come Saturday he was suddenly having to punch out 77 minutes.
Crotty and Naholo also succumbed to first-half injuries and the resultant reshuffle saw Beauden Barrett go to fullback, Israel Dagg the right wing, Ben Smith centre and Malakai Fekitoa second-five.
Aaron Cruden came off the bench to play first-five with Julian Savea inheriting Naholo’s spot on the wing.
It was a bit stiff on Barrett, who’d been brilliant in the first half. Mind you, he shouldn’t have to worry about Cruden taking his position anytime soon.
Barrett scored a try and set one up for Naholo, with Brodie Retallick and Jerome Kaino contributing the other first-half five-pointers.
The pace and vision of Barrett were a continual threat to the Wallabies, as he backed up the form he’d shown for the Hurricanes in Super Rugby.
Captain Kieran Read, Naholo, Fekitoa, Retallick, Kaino and Coles were others to shine in the opening stanza and the team’s challenge was going to be staying on the boil.
They did that, and did it empahtically.