Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
It’s French toast for All Blacks
NEW ZEALAND: Tries: Smith, Todd, Mckenzie (2), Ioane (3) Cons: McKenzie 7
FRANCE: Tries: Serin, Fofana Cons: Belleau (2)
New Zealand 49 France 14
THE All Blacks managed to silence some of their critics with a scintillating second half performance against France in the third test, but coach Steve Hansen was pleased it was just another step on the way to next year’s World Cup.
The All Blacks fielded arguably one of their most inexperienced sides in the last decade with four debutants and only two starting forwards with more than 50 caps each, while Damian McKenzie was starting his first test at flyhalf.
After facing an arm wrestle for the first 45 minutes, however, they cut loose in the final 30 as they ran in four unanswered tries, three to winger Rieko Ioane, to win 49-14 and sweep the three-match series.
“Pretty happy,” Hansen said of the nature of the victory and the development of his side ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.
“We made some improvements. The attitude was a lot better and some of the things we were working on are starting to pay off.
“We will sit back and reflect on the series over the next week or so.”
France stand-in captain Baptiste Serin, who was an early replacement for Morgan Parra, said the All Blacks had been difficult to handle but took positives.
“Playing the best team in the world does give you experience,” Serin said. “We are a young team and we played a good first half. We were thinking we might be able to get a victory here but it was too hard.”