Giant winger Jonah Lomu, the star of the last World Cup, scored two tries as New Zealand recovered from a poor start to swamp rank outsiders Tonga 45-9 in the Group B match inn Bristol.
In the first full international between the two countries, Lomu stood out from a mediocre All Blacks performance as he powered over for a try in each half. New Zealand captain Taine Randell admitted his side would have to show a massive improvement when they face England at Twickenham next Saturday. "We expected to do a hell of a lot better but we knew the Tongans would be really fired up for this one," said the number eight, sporting a number of bruises and abrasions on his face. "We have got a quite a few things to work on throughout our game before we play England who looked very impressive against Italy yeterday.
"We were pretty rusty at the start when the Tongans came at us with everything, but we stuck to our game-plan and got it together at the end." The World Cup favourites looked anything but world beaters in a scrappy first 60 minutes, made worse by windy and wet conditions, as the Tongans disrupted their rhythm with a tough, well-organised performance. England will have seen little to worry them in the All Blacks' sloppy display against a team quoted at 250-1 by bookmakers to win the tournament. New Zealand went into half-time leading just 16-9 but they finally found their form in the final quarter of the match, running in four tries, as the Tongans began to tire.
Twenty of their points came from the boot of fly-half Andrew Mehrtens who struck four penalties and four conversions. Josh Kronfeld, Norm Maxwell, Byron Kelleher were the other try-scorers.
Tonga, though, rarely threatened to cross the New Zealand line, setting out instead to play a spoiling, defensive game with damage limitation clearly uppermost in their minds. Full-back Siua Taumalolo scored all their points with three penalties.
The two teams squared up before kick-off as the All Blacks unveiled their new more aggressive "Haka", the traditional Maori war-cry while Tonga, facing them just yards away, performed their own dance of "Ikale Tahi".
New Zealand took just seven minutes to open their World Cup account when Lomu cut in from the wing and strolled under the posts for his 18th international try after a neat inside pass from fly-half Andrew Mehrtens. Mehrtens made no mistake with the conversion and then added a penalty eight minutes later to put the All Blacks 10-0 in front.
Tonga, buoyed by their 20-16 win over France in June, were expected to take an aggressive approach against a country they resent for "poaching" a number of their top players -- including Lomu -- and for refusing to play them at full Test level.
But the Pacific Islanders maintained their discipline in a tight opening half hour as the much-vaunted All Blacks struggled to impose themselves.
Full-back Siua Taumalolo closed the gap to four points with two penalties midway through the half. The All Blacks were clearly rattled by their powerful, well-organised opponents, and their play became increasingly scrappy as the half wore on.
The normally unflappable Mehrtens even missed two fairly straightforward penalties before converting his second from four attempts in the 33rd minute. But moments later Taumalolo struck his third to close the gap to 13-9 before Mehrtens struck again to restore the All Blacks seven-point lead.
And the fly-half added his fourth five minutes after the interval before Lomu burst down the right wing for his second try of the match and open the floodgates. Kronfeld, Maxwell and Kelleher all went over in quick succession to put a flattering gloss on a disappointing performance.
The Teams:
Tonga: 1 Ta'u Fainga'anuku, 2 Fe'ao Vunipola, 3 Tevita Taumoepeau, 4 Isi Fatani, 5 Ben Hur Kivalu, 6 Hingano Fakatou, 7 Jonathan Koloi, 8 Va'a Toloke, 9 Sililo Martens, 10 'Elisi Vunipola, 11 Tauna'holo Taufahema, 12 David Tiueti, 13 Semi Taupeaafe, 14 Fepiko Tatafu, 15 Siua Taumalolo
Reserves: David Edwards, Latiume Maka, Falamani Mafi, Ngalu Taufo'ou, Isi Tapueluelu, Matt Te Pou, Sione Tuipulotu
New Zealand: 1 Carl Hoeft, 2 Anton Oliver, 3 Kees Meeuws, 4 Robin Brooke, 5 Norm Maxwell, 6 Josh Kronfeld, 7 Reuben Thorne, 8 Taine Randell (c), 9 Justin Marshall, 10 Andrew Mehrtens, 11 Jonah Lomu, 12 Christian Cullen, 13 Alama Ieremia, 14 Tana Umaga, 15 Jeff Wilson
Reserves: Craig Dowd, Daryl Gibson, Byron Kelleher, Royce Willis
Unused: Andrew Blowers, Mark Hammett, Carlos Spencer
Attendance: 22000
Referee: Bevan d
Points Scorers:
Tonga
Pen K.: Taumalolo S. 3
New Zealand
Tries: Kelleher B.T. 1, Kronfeld J.A. 1, Lomu J.T. 2, Maxwell N.M. 1
Conv: Mehrtens A.P. 4
Pen K.: Mehrtens A.P. 4
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