All Blacks fire Championship warning shot

WITH a three-Test whitewash against Wales, 16 tries and signs of a wealth of new talent coming through, the All Blacks feel they have fired a powerful warning shot ahead of the Rugby Championship.

Coach Steve Hansen could not disguise his pleasure after his new-era All Blacks wrapped up the Welsh series with a 46-6 drubbing on Saturday.

“There’s still lots of our game that we have to improve on,” he said.

“But if anyone had said you’re going to lose 818 caps and come out and do what we’ve done over the last three weeks then you would be very happy.”

There were suggestions the world champions would be weakened like Samson without his hair following the loss of several senior players after winning the World Cup last year.

They included the departure of centurions Richie McCaw and Dan Carter as well as the midfield pairing of Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith who had nearly 200 Tests between them.

The dominance of the All Blacks pack to feed an outside backs combination that tormented Wales with pace and accuracy would not have gone unno- ticed by Rugby Championship rivals Australia, South Africa and Argentina.

“It’ll hold us in good stead going into the Championship later in the year,” said new captain Kieran Read.

Even Wales coach Warren Gatland, himself a former All Black, was impressed with the depth of talent available to Hansen to seamlessly mould a new side.

“I thought they were absolutely outstanding,” he said.

Wales had their chances in the third Test in Dunedin and enjoyed 62 per cent of possession and 58 per cent of territory yet were kept tryless by a ruthless All Blacks defence.

After scoring five tries in each of the first two Tests, the All Blacks on limited ball went one better in the third with six tries to Ben Smith, George Moala, Beauden Barrett (2) Dane Coles and Israel Dagg.

Barrett added five conversions and two penalties while Wales were limited to two Dan Biggar penalties within the first 16 minutes.

The rugby championship opens in Sydney on August 20, with the All Blacks playing Australia.