Revved-up Read shows his captain’s qualities

All Blacks off to usual rusty start

Kieran Read was described before last night’s test by coach Steve Hansen as a ‘‘pretty excited beast’’.

Last night he needed to be a controlling, calculating one too.

It’s doubtful that the fact his 10th game as captain, and his first as a fulltime leader, was against Wales meant he was weighed down by any history.

During the week he neatly sidestepped the issue of whether he actually knew much about a story rugby tragics love, that in 1905 the All Blacks were denied a win against Wales because their wing Bob Deans (Robbie Deans’ great uncle) was pulled back after touching down and was so denied a winning try.

The worrying history last night was in the rustiness that continued to haunt the All Blacks as it has in so many first tests of the season for years.

Wales were determined and adventurous, looking not remotely like the disjointed side that was whipped by England in their warmup game for the tour.

Read would have been tearing out his hair, and maybe even starting on his beard, as players whose hands were impeccable in Super Rugby suddenly turned to stone when attacks looked promising.

Waisake Naholo was one who mixed stunning brilliance in the first half with handling that several times turned good All Black possession into lost opportunities. Through it all Read was, as you’d expect, hugely hard working, as he has been for the Crusaders this season.

There’s evidence it’s not just being appointed as the permanent All Blacks captain that’s revved up the man who as a kid at Rosehill College in Papakura was being talked about as a possible Black Caps batsman.

Inside the Crusaders camp they say there was a spring in Read’s step from the time he arrived for offseason training and decided he didn’t need any games of Super Rugby off this year. When he’s in that exuberant mood Read is living evidence that you can be 109kg, tough as nails, a terminal tackler, and also have speed, vision, and silky off loading skills.

If there was ever a test of character, both for him and his team, it was going to halftime down 18-15 against a side most believed would be brave, but not much else.

Given the circumstances, he might have been tempted to call the game in close, to use himself, Jerome Kaino, Brodie Rettalick, and Luke Romano to bash the Welsh forwards until they started to concede territory and penalties. The sort of tactics in fact which have been largely dispensed with by this All Blacks team, whose preferred style is usually based on the mantra of ‘‘who dares, wins’’.

But a minute into the second spell it was Read who flung a long, daring pass out to Julian Savea which set the tone for the All Blacks’ response to the startlingly good form of the Welsh.

In the end it was a brave stroke from Aaron Smith, to forfeit an easy three points from a penalty, and to tap to Naholo instead that swung the game to the All Blacks. It was almost weird in its perfect symmetry that Read would put the game out of sight with a terrific try, and that George Ayoub, the world’s most erratic television match official would add a touch of comic genius by denying a good try to TJ Perenara, and then, to the surprise of most of us, get one right by ruling out Taulupe Faletau’s effort in the dying minutes.

The worrying history last night was in the rustiness that continued to haunt the All Blacks as it has in so many first tests of the season for years.