Tana Umaga scored two tries, a parting salute to the team that goaded him, as the All Blacks beat the British and Irish Lions 38-19 in the third rugby test at Eden Park on Saturday, sweeping the three-match series.
Umaga spent 10 minutes in the sin-bin in the first half as one of two All Blacks temporarily ejected from the game. But he returned to taunt the Lions with tries on either side of halftime.
The British tourists set up a dangerous enemy when they made Umaga the butt of a campaign after the first test at Christchurch, blaming him for the injury which ruled skipper Brian O'Driscoll out of the tour.
PHOTO: AP
The All Blacks won the first test 21-3 and the campaign against Umaga gave New Zealand the motivation to win the second 48-18, by a record margin, to clinch the series in two games.
Umaga farewelled the Lions Saturday with panache, with an outstanding individual performance which lifted the All Blacks to their ninth win in 10 series against the Lions and their eighth win in 10 matches against British teams in Auckland.
``It's been a tough week, the Lions battered us and we had a lot of changes tonight and a lot of weary bodies out there,'' Umaga said. ``I don't know if you can say that was the greatest rugby after the previous two weeks. We dropped our standards but we came away with the win.''
Lions captain Gareth Thomas, who was replaced by Shane Horgan early in the second half, said turnovers were again costly.
"It's been a pretty tough series but I'm proud of the guys, we didn't give up for one minute," Thomas said.
"That's the thing about the All Blacks, you give them turnover ball and they punish you -- they're quality players."
Clive Woodward's Lions return to Britain on Sunday remembered among nine predecessors for their inability to win a test series in New Zealand and already described as the worst Lions team to tour here.
The Lions felt an absence of playmakers in their backline, a lack of players capable of taking on and cracking a hard defensive line. Their attempts to move the ball were flawed and ineffective, lost in labored passing.
"If you look at the series as a whole, we weren't the better team," added Thomas. "Good on the All Blacks, they deserved to win."
The All Blacks ran tries to Umaga, Ali Williams and Conrad Smith through a leaky Lions defense' in the first half and others, to Umaga and Rico Gear, in a meandering second spell.
Flyhalf Luke McAlister, replacing 33-point hero Daniel Carter from the second test, was given a comfortable ride on his test debut, kicking five conversions and a penalty from as many attempts.
Smith waded through a huge gap on a vacant blindside and swerved past fullback Geordan Murphy to score the first of the All Blacks tries.
Williams pounced on the ball behind the Lions goal line four minutes later when halfback Dwayne Peel knocked a slanted crosskick over his own line.
Stephen Jones was kept busy kicking four first-half penalties for the Lions but the All Blacks' three tries, the last to Umaga, gave them a 24-12 halftime lead.
Umaga clinched the match with his second try in the eighth minute of the second half, running off another short pass close to the goal line at the end of a move from a tapped penalty.
Rico Gear added the last of the match and series in the final minute, intercepting a pass among the Lions backline, kicking ahead and winning the race to the ball.
The Lions scored their only try in the 65th minute, after a series of penalties near the goal line, when flanker Lewis Moody was driven over among a clutch of forwards.
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