All Blacks win ‘special’ for stand-in captain

Stand-in All Blacks captain Sam Whitelock dodged his yellowtinged bullet to complete a hugely satisfying first day at the office in charge of the good ship All Blacks.

That’s why, following their

33-18 victory over Wales to bring the curtain down on their year in style, the normally taciturn Cantabrian was practically rolling out the adjectives to describe a display he had to admit was pretty damn satisfying.

Fair enough. The All Blacks had to soak up a mountain of Welsh pressure through a dominant first 40. It was a minor miracle that Whitelock and his men went into the sheds with a 12-11 lead to work off, testament to a fabulous defensive effort until all but the final minute of the half.

But, as they are wont to do, they dug themselves out of a tight spot impressively, running in three second-half tries (two to man-ofthe-match Rieko Ioane) to complete the tour undefeated, notch an

11th victory of the season and take their Welsh win streak to 30.

‘‘There was a lot of pride looking at the defence in that first

40-odd minutes,’’ Whitelock said. ‘‘We got two opportunities and scored twice. That’s pretty special. The boys took their chances when we got them, and after halftime we came out and lifted again.’’

Whitelock said he enjoyed the chance to stand at the arrowhead of the haka and to lead his team out (regular skip Kieran Read absent with a back problem), but not the 68th-minute yellow card he received for an infringement under pressure.

‘‘It’s never nice sitting down. The beauty was the scrum still went really well and I don’t think we had a lineout. The boys adapted really well, took their time and made sure everyone was clear on what needed to be done.’’

Coach Steve Hansen said it was a rewarding victory, all things considered.

‘‘It was a good reflection of where we were at this week. We put a lot of hard work in, we