New Zealand notched up five tries to beat France 42-11 in what was an average performance from the hosts with Les Bleus showing plenty of courage throughout the match at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.
Winger Sitiveni Sivivatu and centre Aaron Mauger bagged a brace of tries each to help make the scoreline a respectable one.
If you were a New Zealand supporter who believed in a scoreline, you would have found beating France 42-11 satisfying. You believed that the All Blacks always started the Test season slowly, you would have been comforted. If you counted tries, five to one against France was pleasing. If you were an ardent believer in the power of scrumming, you would have had your faith confirmed. But in truth there was not a lot else that was satisfying or comforting.
New Zealand were playing against an untried French combination of grandfathers and grandsons, cobbled together in less than a week and arriving in distant New Zealand on Tuesday, which made a bit of a mockery of claims that New Zealand were rusty because they had had little time to prepare.
New Zealand were not threatened at all in a match in which they dominated possession from line-outs, scrums, tackle/rucks and penalties. They dominated territory to the extent of 77 per cent, and yet they at no stage looked fluent.
Partly it was the fault of New Zealand handling on an Auckland night. But partly it was the great commitment of the French on defence as they kept bringing All Black icons crashing to earth.
Two of the icons -- Daniel Carter and Richie McCaw -- were kept off for the second half, Carter with a sore ankle and McCaw with a bruised thigh. Eventually both sides used all their replacements and France may have had the worst of the injuries. Jean-Philippe Grandclaude was helped off early in the match and a wobbly Pascal Papé late in the match after a long delay for injury.
In fact there were several delays for injury in the match, several for long and sloppy scrums and a couple for long examinations by a careful television match official.
After operatic anthems and a violent haka, before a pleasing crowd of 41,500, Benjamin Boyet kicked off for France. Despite a plethora of possession and territory the All Blacks did not find scoring easy and got their first try only after 29 minutes -- a well constructed try, in fact the best constructed of the five tries.
The All Blacks scored first when debutant Grégory Le Corvec was off-side and Daniel Carter kicked a goal. after seven minutes. Carter was hurt and so Piri Weepu kicked the next goal. 6-0 after 10 minutes.
France got close enough for Boyet to kick a penalty when Reuben Thorne was penalised at a tackle. That was the only penalty conceded by the All Blacks in the first half. (The penalty count for the match was 12-4 in the favour of the All Blacks.)
The try came from a scrum on the New Zealand right. Carter, as he was being tackled, played inside to Joe Rokocoko who burst and gave to Isaia Toeava who gave Aaron Mauger a clear run to the posts. 13-3 as Carter converted.
Just before half-time Carter, going left, chopped right and Sitiveni Sivivatu ran onto the ball, footing ahead. There was poor defence by Thomas Castaignède and the ball ended in the French in-goal. The TMO took a long, long, restless time deciding that it was a try. Weepu converted and the score at the break was 20-3.
Nick Evans started the second half in Carter's place and started sharply. In fact he had an excellent half, always causing problems for the French defence.
He kicked a penalty but then, when Ali Williams was penalised for a high tackle, Boyet kicked one. 23-6 after 44 minutes.
From now on the All Black pack shattered the French scrums. From one such shatter Chris Masoe set the All Blacks running and Sivivatu was close. In fact he was over but was penalised in the process.
The All Blacks stayed on the attack, taking scrums for penalties. Weepu did tap one and was tackled by Boyet who was sent to the sin bin for doing so before retreating properly. The All Blacks did some stamping on Papé here and there was an upsurge of emotion.
From the five-metre scrum Evans slid a left-footed grubber into the French in-goal but Toeava failed to ground the ball, as the wise TMO advised. That led to a five-metre scrum for France which the All Blacks destroyed. This led to a try by Sivivatu off a slap-on that looked decidedly forward. 28-6.
France had their only chance to attack in the match and scored a try. Their attack consisted of two diagonal kicks which would qualify as foot passes. Castaignède gave the first to his right and then when they went left Olivier Magne gave one to his left into the New Zealand in-goal where debutant Jean-François Coux scored despite being tackled early by Rokocoko. 28-11 with 21 minutes to play.
The fourth New Zealand try did not come from one of their pressure situations on attack but from far out as they started to counter from their own 22. They kicked ahead and caught Castaignède in possession. Rodney So'oialo forced the turn-over and off they went right where Sivivatu handed speeding Mauger a sweet pass and the centre cut clean through for an untrammeled run to the posts. 35-11 with 17 minutes to play.
At this stage Boyet returned from the sin bin.
The last New Zealand try started with a gross error by France. Mauger kicked into the 22 where right wing Benjamin Thiéry caught a mark. He started to kick and then stopped. The All Blacks were in quickly. The kick void, New Zealand had a scrum six metres out and attacked going right where So'oialo forced his way through Arnaud Mignardi and Nicolas Durand to score a try which Evans converted.
The All Blacks could have had one more when Rokocoko burst downfield on the right and passed inside to Brendon Leonard. It was a high pass and the replacement half-back could not hold on for what could well have been a try on debut.
Man of the Match: Often maligned, often disciplined, Ali Williams had a great match. He was part of the All Blacks' possession domination and also found time to run with purpose on several occasions. He is our Man of the Match.
Moment of the Match: A tackle -- Sébastien Chabal's thumping tackle on Chris Masoe that left the strong All Black groggy.
Villain of the Match: Nobody really worth mentioning.
The scorers:
For New Zealand:
Tries: Mauger 2, Sivivatu 2, So'oialo
Cons: Carter 2, Evans 2
Pens: Carter, Weepu, Evans
For France:
Tries: Coux
Pens: Boyet 2
Yellow cards: Boyet (France, 52min, dangerous tackle)
The teams:
New Zealand: 15 Leon MacDonald, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Isaia Toeava, 12 Aaron Mauger, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Daniel Carter, 9 Piri Weepu, 8 Chris Masoe, 7 Richie McCaw (captain), 6 Reuben Thorne, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Chris Jack, 3 Carl Hayman, 2 Keven Mealamu, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 Neemia Tialata, 18 Troy Flavell, 19 Rodney So'oialo, 20 Brendon Leonard, 21 Nick Evans, 22 Ma'a Nonu.
France: 15 Thomas Castaignède, 14 Jean-Francois Coux, 13 Arnaud Mignardi, 12 Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, 11 Benjamin Thiéry, 10 Benjamin Boyet, 9 Nicolas Durand, 8 Sébastien Chabal, 7 Olivier Magne, 6 Gregory Le Corvec, 5 Pascal Papé (captain), 4 Julien Pierre, 3 Nicolas Mas, 2 Sebastian Bruno, 1 Christian Califano.
Replacements: 16 Raphaël Ibañez, 17 Franck Montanella, 18 Olivier Olibeau, 19 Damien Chouly, 20 Mickael Forest, 21 Nicolas Laharrague, 22 Ludovic Valbon
Referee: Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
Touch judges: Matt Goddard (Australia), James Leckie (Australia)
Television match official: George Ayoub (Australia)
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