New Zealand pulled away in the last half-hour to cruise to a 47-9 win over Tonga on Friday, but headed into the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals without a complete 80-minute performance in the pool stage.
Tonga were 14-6 down, but troubling the All Blacks before the momentum swung when winger Nehe Milner-Skudder crossed in the 53rd minute for the first of his two tries at St James’ Park.
New Zealand scored five tries in the second half — and seven in total — for a fourth straight win to top Pool C. Fittingly, the last try was scored by center Ma’a Nonu on his 100th appearance in the iconic black jersey.
Photo: Reuters
There is plenty of room for improvement for the defending champions after a first half when their scrum was pushed around and their handling was sloppy. New Zealand also appeared vulnerable at stages in their first three wins.
“We’ve had to work hard through the pool stage and that hasn’t been a bad thing for us,” Hansen said. “We had a plan and we stuck to that plan. Now we have to wait to see if it works.”
“How you are playing at the moment means nothing,” Hansen said. “What’s happening now isn’t relevant. What happens next week [in the quarter-final] will be.”
Photo: Reuters
Tonga exited the tournament with just one win in the pool — and with a fifth straight loss to the All Blacks — and their fourth-place finish means they will have to qualify for the 2019 World Cup. However, they rattled their illustrious opponents in Newcastle.
New Zealand’s scrum gave away four first-half penalties — including two when they packed down with seven men after captain Kieran Read’s yellow card — and their error count was high. Winger Waisake Naholo spilled the ball from Dan Carter’s pass when faced with a three-on-one in the left corner.
Tonga also found some joy with breaks through flimsy New Zealand defense close to the ruck. At halftime, they led in territory (55 percent), needed to make fewer tackles, earned more penalties and had an extra man on the field — but still found themselves 14-3 down.
“The plan wasn’t to wait for the All Blacks to attack us. We wanted to attack them,” said Tonga captain Nili Latu, who likely played his final Test. “In the first half, we took it to them.”
However, New Zealand had ruthless edge and the first try, by fullback Ben Smith, was clinical, with great handling from Milner-Skudder, Sam Cane and Conrad Smith in a narrow channel from a blindside move.
Prop Tony Woodcock’s try was at the other end of the scale, the prop barging over from close range after a delayed pass from scrumhalf Aaron Smith. Woodcock went off in the 43rd minute with an injured right hamstring, which could spell the end of his career after 118 Tests.
Tonga’s only first-half points came from Kurt Morath’s penalty, but the Pacific Islanders should have added more in the final minutes after Read was sin-binned for bringing down a driving maul. Four scrums followed near the tryline — the All Blacks were penalized at two of them — but no penalty try was awarded.
“We didn’t get a reward for it. I’ll leave it to your judgement whether it was a penalty try,” Tonga coach Mana Otai told reporters.
Morath cut the lead to 14-6 with a 49th-minute penalty, but two tries from Milner-Skudder hit Tonga hard. He barged through opposite winger Fetu’u Vainikolo for his first then ran onto Beauden Barrett’s grubber kick to ground in the opposite corner.
After that, it was a procession as Tonga tired and the All Blacks’ bench rammed home the advantage.
Sonny Bill Williams and Cane touched down, while Nonu was on the shoulder of Milner-Skudder to complete the scoring with four minutes remaining.
Nonu’s try was the only one that Carter did not convert.
The result lifted Argentina into the quarter-finals and confirmed Georgia as third in the pool and an automatic qualifier for the next World Cup in Japan.
Eight-Test prop Joe Moody yesterday left New Zealand for England as the All Blacks hastily responded to Woodcock’s injury.
Moody, 27, who made all of his Test appearances last season, was due to play for his Canterbury province in a National Championship match yesterday, but instead headed to the airport.
Woodcock was due to retire when the World Cup ends.
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