A ruthless New Zealand yesterday piled on 16 tries, including five to Will Jordan, as they overwhelmed an understrength Tonga 102-0 for their opening Test of the year in Auckland.
Despite the lopsided result, All Blacks coach Ian Foster and Tonga coach Toutai Kefu said that the match was worth playing.
“A lot will be made of the score, and clearly the score was one-sided,” Foster said. “You can get a lot out of it, because we had some real areas we wanted to target. There were moments when we started to get really flat ... but after a while we readjusted and started to convert the opportunities we got and that took discipline.”
Photo: AFP
Kefu, with 13 debutants in his side, saw positives ahead of their World Cup qualifying matches this month against Samoa.
He described the result as “unpleasant,” but valuable.
“It will be memorable for the new players, but we move on. It’s a bad day at the office against the best team in the world,” he said.
It was the ninth time the All Blacks have notched a century of points and was the second time the have won 102-0 against Tonga, which they also did 21 years ago.
Jordan’s five tries were one short of the New Zealand Test record set by Marc Ellis in 1995.
It took just 67 seconds for Damian McKenzie to score the opening try and within 19 minutes the All Blacks were up 38-0.
It was 43-0 at halftime.
Without access to their top players on contract in the northern hemisphere, Tonga’s mix of mainly amateur, New Zealand-based players could not match a fully professional All Blacks unit.
The All Blacks were in a no-win situation with the spectators, though, as they faced criticism when not playing to their full potential and when they embarrassed a hapless opposition.
“All the fans were acting like we won,” Kefu joked.
The biggest cheers came when Tonga twice turned down kickable penalties in favor of an attacking scrum.
In the second half, the All Blacks produced a relentless attack with nine further tries as they dismantled Tonga with ease.
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