Mils Muliaina scored his first four tries in All Blacks colors as the New Zealanders romped to a 68-6 victory over Canada at the World Cup yesterday after failing to score for the first 18 minutes.
Center Caleb Ralph and back row Rodney So'oialo collected two tries each and center Daniel Carter kicked nine conversions to become the championships top scorer with 35 points.
"It was nice to get a few easy ones. It was pretty good out there," said Miliaina, who became the 10th player, and fifth New Zealander, to score four or more tries in one World Cup match. "We wanted to get the ball rolling and in the second half it just seemed to flow."
Despite the lopsided resulted, All Blacks skipper Reuben Thorne wasn't thrilled with the match.
"We'll take the points for sure but we really need to lift our performance and that is what we aim for in the next couple of weeks," he said. "They were physical tonight and we expect the exactly the same from Tonga next week."
Ryan Banks, who led Canada until he was replaced in the second half, said his lineup "showed a lot of heart."
"They had too much pace on the outside and that's what makes them one of the best teams in the world," he said. "We were happy we shut them down in the midfield and we did a lot of good things tonight that were positive for us."
Banks thinks New Zealand will be the team to beat at the Cup.
"I feel they've got to be the favorites," he said. "There's some impressive speed out there."
It was a slow start before 38,899 fans under the roof at Docklands Stadium before the All Blacks took complete control.
Carter, who scored 17 points against Italy, missed an early penalty and the so-called second string Canadian team kept the All Blacks at bay for 18 minutes until Ralph scored the 100th try of the championship.
It came from a brilliant kick ahead by Carlos Spencer after the All Blacks broke from their own quarter. Ralph took advantage of lucky bounce and beat Canadian fullback Quentin Fyffe to the touchdown.
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