Reserves have to help set benchmark
New-look All Blacks take their time to spark into life
SAY what you want about Waisake Naholo but if he is going to be a prominent part of this new era of All Black rugby, man is it going to be fun to watch. In so many ways, Naholo’s night, in front of a sellout crowd of 46,270 at Eden Park, encapsulated the All Blacks in a nutshell on this their first hitout of the new international rugby season. They took the honours 39-21.
The excitement machine from the Highlanders was equal parts inspiration and frustration, much like the All Blacks themselves. Naholo was either very, very good, or, for long patches of the first half, very, very bad. And so too were the world champions as they took what seemed an inordinate amount of time to shake off the rust and shake loose a quality Welsh challenge.
But in the end, Naholo − bravely left to play the full 80 by his coach − finished strongly. And so − you guessed it − did the All Blacks.
The Welsh had a real chance in this one to end that 63-year, now 27-test wait for a victory over the All Blacks, leading 18-15 at halftime, and 21-18 a dozen minutes into the second spell.
But this All Blacks outfit got better as this test wore on, and, sadly for Welsh hopes, the visiting effort rather faded as the effort of a fabulous first 55 minutes or so finally took a toll.
Steve Hansen had promised us ‘‘re-establishment’’, and not ‘‘rebuilding’’, in this launch of the post-Richie McCaw era.
But the first 40 or 50 minutes of this opening test of the year demonstrated palpably that the All Blacks can have all the intent in the world but the sheer fact of the matter is that first up, with players coming from all corners of the land, it is going to take some time for the machine to rumble into life.
This team may indeed take up where they left off, lifting that golden trophy at Twickenham last October. But we need further evidence to assess that.
It was indeed a shaky first 40 minutes from the world champions at their fortress where they’ve now won 35 consecutive tests since 1994.
They did some positive things, though they were outnumbered two to one by the negative aspects. They fell off tackles, they dropped ball, they were untidy around the ruck and they were not as composed as they needed to be in the face of that rushing Welsh defence.
And if anyone encapsulated the frustrations of the opening half it was Naholo − he of the two leg fractures and the false start to his test career in 2015. Man, he was trying hard. You could see it writ large on his face, eyes wide, cheeks puffing.
But he just could not string the good things together. He made a good carry with his first touch but, after that, things went rather pearshaped. He got in Ben Smith’s way to present the Welsh an opportunity they turned into Taulupe Faletau’s opening try, in which Naholo made a bad defensive decision to rush in from his touchline; then he fumbled a pass right in his bread-basket; then he sparked a nice breakout that led to Julian Savea’s try; then he scored a beaut himself off Ben Smith’s big run up the middle; then he opened up the Welsh with another run but missed Ben Smith on the support line and then lost it forward in the contact.
Phew. One step forward, two backwards for the power winger.
Thankfully, after the break he tidied things, and so did his team. Naholo scored the try to put the All Blacks back in front, 25-21, when he came like a low-flying missile off Aaron Smith’s quick tap, and from there the All Blacks were running downhill.
Skipper Kieran Read, composed in his first test as designated captain, powered over off Patrick Tuipulotu’s offload to seal the deal and before all was said and done Nathan Harris finished a ripper in the corner, set up by his props Wyatt Crockett and Charlie Faumuina.
So what of the new era? Aaron Cruden was excellent, Sam Cane played hard and the midfield gave as good as they took against quality Welsh opposites. The bench, too, was a difference-maker, Beauden Barrett sparking things with his early introduction, and the rest taking up his lead. Better is to come surely. But against excellent opponents who don’t mind playing a bit, a promising start indeed.