BLACK TAKES RED
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen wanted ‘‘re-establishment’’, rather than ‘‘rebuilding’’, and believed he got it in a composed first-up victory over the Welsh at Eden Park last night.
Yes, it was rusty. The Welsh had the All Blacks on the ropes for much of the first 60 minutes before they ran away to a 39-21 victory, sealed by late tries to new skipper Kieran Read and Nathan Harris. But Hansen says rust has to be accepted as part of the deal in the first test of the year.
But there was plenty the coach of the back-to-back world champions liked about a display that got better as the match wore on, and in the end ticked a lot more positive than negative boxes.
‘‘You don’t win test matches without quality performances, and while this one was a little rusty, all our first test matches of the year are rusty. When you judge a team most is when they’re under pressure, and we went in at halftime behind, a young team, and how were we going to react?
‘‘I think the response we got was first-rate. They put a line in the sand. Yes, we’ll go forward from here and be better for this performance, no doubt about it, but you have to start somewhere and this group has started, and they’re going about re-establishing themselves.’’
The coach saw a lot more to be happy about, than dismayed too as his team scored five tries to two to go one-up in the three-test series.
‘‘It’s our first game since winning the World Cup, we’ve had massive changes, we had two weeks to prepare for this test match, and a lot of things you have do involving learning a lot for the players and dumping a lot.
‘‘Some people out there have answered some really good questions. And the biggest question we’ve answered is in the tight moments we can still keep our composure. That’s down to our leaders, and Reado (Kieran Read) should be proud of that because he is driving it.’’
Hansen also praised wing Waisake Naholo, who scored two crucial tries, for the way he bounced back after a rough start.
‘‘We talked out on the field, and I won’t say what he said about his first half because you can’t write it. But I said, ‘son, the pleasing thing is you came through the other side of that’, and that takes a lot of effort, and mental effort particularly. We know he’s really talented, and he hurt them even in the first half when he scored a lovely try.
‘‘When you try too hard sometimes you make some mistakes. He has been desperate to show us all just how good he is. The more time he spends in the jersey, the more we’ll see he’s a quality player.’’ Hansen said Naholo would have learned a lot from a testing night in which he faced plenty of pressure.
‘‘He’ll certainly understand you can come back, and that’s the big thing. We all make mistakes, and it’s how you deal with those mistakes that is the key ... he came through it, as did others.’’
The All Blacks coach also praised his bench. As well as skipper Read, big Brodie Retallick, Aaron Cruden and eventually Naholo played to secure the victory, the impact off the pine was massive.
Beauden Barrett led that, but Ardie Savea was close behind as every All Black who entered the game made a difference.
‘‘That’s nothing new,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘When we’ve won games in the past we’ve said we’re a 23-man squad . . . on game day we’ve got 23 guys and we want to ask the opposition ‘do you have 23?’
‘‘You can play a speed of game that can challenge the opposition. We made subs early today because we felt it was the right thing to do, and each and every one of those subs made a difference.’’
And on Barrett who may have turned the contest with his introduction at fullback just after halftime, with Ben Smith replacing Julian Savea on the wing?
‘‘He’s world-class, and that’s what we want him to do. We’re happy with that."
The biggest question we’ve answered is in the tight moments we can still keep our composure. All Blacks coach Steve Hansen