All Blacks shape up well

New Zealand have given themselves a useful training-match hit-out, beating Samoa by a record 101-14 margin in New Plymouth on Wednesday.

The performance was not flawless by any means.  Restarts were messy, and the handling was often rusty early on.  Having built up a commanding early lead, the concentration fell away for a while and Samoa caused one or two problems, not least when they finished off a clinical try.

The opening All Black try was as textbook as could be.  New Zealand had a scrum out right, and they wheeled it to the left with consummate ease, meaning that the Samoan back-row was left struggling to cover the extra yards across the middle of the park.

Ma'a Nonu fed Adam Thomson inside, who punched it up the middle.  From the ruck, the ball was swung wide left, and another ruck was formed, and then the ball came back wide right where Mils Muliaina had space to get through some rather shabby tackling and go under the posts.  A perfect three-phase training ground plan.

Samoan full-back Alatasi Tupou had a shot for posts to at least get his side on the board two minutes later when Andrew Hore was caught offside, and referee Stuart Dickinson was certainly unforgiving on marginal decisions against the All Blacks, which is fair enough -- the All Blacks should not have been getting anything even marginally wrong today.

Tupou's kick flew high and wide though, and from the counter attack, Anthony Tuitavake made 50m down the left, before the ball moved through four sets of hands from one touchline to the other, and Adam Thomson scored.

Muliaina notched his second on thirteen minutes after Tuitavake accelerated out of a tight spot, and New Zealand's attack from the restart took them into Samoa's 22, before Dan Carter's high kick was taken by Tuitavake, who linked with Muliaina to send Conrad Smith through.

Thomson showed us his sevens talents by bursting through a midfield gap and nearly out-stripping the Samoan cover, but Samoa did well to dig in for the resulting five minutes of heavy pressure -- including several 5m scrums -- before hacking clear a dropped ball from Nonu.  At the next spell of pressure, they even managed to turn over the ball, as New Zealand's concentration of players at the ruck diluted.

It spurred the visitors on, and after Kahui was caught out by the new laws about kicking from the 22, George Stowers' break off the back of the line-out ended in a try for Samoan Sevens star Uale Mai, who burst through a half-gap from seven metres out.

Conrad Smith ghosted in for a try under the posts shortly after, with Ma'a Nonu making the initial yardage down the left.

Then Samoan scrum-half Notise Tauafao was yellow-carded for a stupid offside -- his team's tenth penalty to New Zealand's one -- and the All Blacks immediately exploited it, drilling the scrum backwards and then with Rodney So'oialo feeding Jimmy Cowan down the short side.

From the restart, the All Blacks spread the ball wide, sensing the bowing heads in the Samoan camp, and once Kahui had slipped through some tired tackles, Muliaina was free to sprint clear and claim his hat-trick.

Dan Carter converted six of the seven tries, surpassing 2,000 career points in the process, and it was 47-7 at the break.

Garham Henry rang some changes in the second half, bring on Stephen Donald and Isaia Toeava, and it was Toeava who provided the scoring pass for Kahui within five minutes of the start of the second half.

Sione Lauaki and Keve Mealamu were the next to enter the fray as replacements, but neither were involved in the next try, a slick move up the right both started and finished by Stephen Donald.

More replacements followed, with Piri Weepu and Neemia Tialata next in, and Ali Williams was next in on the scoresheet after some more neat inter-passing down the right following a useful Donald kick.

Rudi Wulf butchered another try by trying to do a little too much before offloading the ball, having made a terrific break.

But by this point, the Samoan pack was exhausted.  They were pushed off their own ball twice at 5m scrums -- this still before the hour mark -- and at the third, a penalty try was awarded.

With a century in sight, the All Blacks became guilty of trying to force it a little too much.  Not enough rucking, too much speculative and loose passing.  Standard stuff for a team already 80 points to the good, but perhaps a little dissatisfying for Graham Henry, who had spoken at half-time of the need to finish things off and be a bit more clinical.

Tries from Toeava, Weepu -- a length of the field move after it had appeared Samoa might score again -- and then Samoa did score again, when a kick through by Mai was taken on by Alafoti Faosiliva to the line.  Roger Warren converted.

Stephen Donald was given the shot at goal to make it a century when Richard Kahui finished off a long passage of play in which the build-up was good but the finishing far from it.  He made it.

The scorers:

For New Zealand:
Tries:  Muliaina 3, Thomson, Smith 2, Cowan, Kahui 2, Donald, Williams, Kaino, penalty try, Toeava, Weepu
Cons:  Carter 6, Donald 7

For Samoa:
Tries:  Mai, Faosiliva
Cons:  Mai, Warren

The teams:

New Zealand:  15 Mils Muliaina, 14 Richard Kahui, 13 Conrad Smith, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Anthony Tuitavake, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Rodney So'oialo (c), 7 Adam Thomson, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Willliams, 4 Anthony Boric, 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Andrew Hore, 1 Tony Woodcock.
Replacements:  16 Keven Mealamu, 17 Neemia Tialata, 18 Sione Lauaki, 19 Piri Weepu, 20 Stephen Donald, 21 Isaia Toeava, 22 Rudi Wulf.

Samoa:  15 Alatasi Tupou, 14 Reupena Levasa, 13 Pale Toelupe, 12 Jerry Meafou, 11 Esera Lauina, 10 Uale Mai, 9 Notise Tauafao, 8 George Stowers, 7 Alafoti Faosiliva, 6 Semo Sititi, 5 Chad Slade, 4 Filipo Levi (c), 3 Heroshi Tea, 2 Loleni Tafunai, 1 Simon Lemalu.
Replacements:  16 Lafoga Aoelua, 17 Roysiu Tolufale, 18 Maselino Paulino, 19 Simaika Mikaele, 20 Junior Poluleuligaga, 21 Roger Warren, 22 Romi Ropati.

Referee:  Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
Touch judges:  James Leckie (Australia), Paul Marks (Australia)
Television match official:  Geoff Acton (Australia)
Assessor:  Stuart Beissel (New Zealand)