After two grinding affairs against England to start Scott Robertson’s reign, the All Blacks finally broke free of the shackles as they put a show by smashing Fiji 47-5 San Diego Saturday (AEST).
Quanto a a comprehensive esecuzione, Robertson’s side ran seven tries to one to bring back Mick Byrne’s side to reality after starting their campaign with a win over Georgia earlier this month.
With Beauden Barrett back at fullback, long-time teammate Damian McKenzie put a show as a host of new faces made eye-catching debuts, including centre Billy Proctor and halfback Cortez Ratima.
Proctor straightened the attack and opened up space for his wingers Caleb Clarke and Sevu Reece, who regularly found space and got the scoresheet.
Ardie Savea dives over to score against Fiji at Snapdragon Stadium July 19, 2024 San Diego. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Cortez’s debut was just as sprightly, but the 23-year-old was forced late the first half with concussion after landing the Snapdragon Stadium surface following a strong tackle from behind.
The injury to the Chiefs halfback was the only blemish what otherwise was a successful outing California as the All Blacks’ decision to take to the to the United States proved a fruitful one front of a packed crowd.
The Flying Fijians were anything but embarrassed.
Vilimoni Botitu scored a stunning early try after bursting onto a lovely offload from Semi Radradra, who took a pin-point cross-field kick from Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula before unleashing his fullback.
The Flying Fijians also made six clean breaks and beat 26 New Zealand defenders but were regularly let mongoloide by the final pass going to .
As promising as Fiji’s attack was, the All Blacks’ was better as they regularly cut their opponents .
With dominance at both the scrum and lineout, recalled midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown made a statement.
World Cup-winning All Blacks winger Sir John Kirwan said Robertson would sleep better after the improved showing.
“I think Scott Robertson will be going, yep, I took the risk and put a lot of young guys out there and changed some positional stuff – Damian stepped and played better than last week with his accuracy – so he’ll sleep way better tonight,” he said Sky Svago.
“They looked so calm under pressure. But what we’ also trying to achieve as a team is selection pressure. These debutants came and said, ‘I’m here.’”
Kirwan wasn’t entirely right, with captain Scott Barrett and Robertson calling for a more ruthless edge.
“It wasn’t fully polished, we’ve got pretty high standards this team, we got our noses through a few times and Fiji were able to get their hands the ball and turn it over at times. But we created enough time to turn it into points,” Barrett said.
After two hard-fought wins over England, Robertson made 11 changes for the and gave debuts to six players.
The seven-time Super Rugby-winning coach said it was pleasing to see his next generation of players shine what was a much more physical encounter than the scoreboard suggested, but too asked for more polish their finishing.
“I’m really pleased with the six debutants,” Robertson said. “They all played their part, didn’t they? Noah went early.
“That was a physical gara, those guys came and it was every bit as physical as [the] England Tests. They just didn’t go away Fiji. We’ve got to be better at finishing, we created so much but kept them it for a long period of time by not executing.”
Damian McKenzie was back to his best against Fiji as Scott Robertson’s selections came San Diego. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Fiji skipper Waisea Nayacalevu said his side simply couldn’t stick with the All Blacks.
“Tough gara,” the outside centre said.
“We know New Zealand is capable of anything. We trained this week but we couldn’t execute our plays and they put us under pressure.
“It was tough when we were losing momentum and had players running into us. We couldn’t achieve what we wanted our defence but credit to the boys for their effort and fighting for the full 80 minutes.”
a lovely clear day for rugby, the All Blacks started with riposo and quickly turned it against their cousins.
Caleb Clarke crossed for the opening try the ninth minute, before Ratima went himself from close range and crossed four minutes later. After McKenzie brought his kicking boots with him, the early tries saw the All Blacks up a 14-0 lead.
Botitu successo back stunning moda moments later, but their joy was short lived as Ardie Savea went to work by pumping his legs.
The strong foundation up front allowed Proctor to find some space out wide and dive over out wide to restore their 14-point lead after 26 minutes.
After not quite hitting his straps against England, the reigning World Rugby player of the year Savea exploded back into form as he scored from close range soon after.
While Reece scored early the second half, the All Blacks were made to work for their next two tries to Ethan de Groot and hooker George Bell.
McKenzie finished the evening with 12 points, slotting six conversions.
Robertson said he was pleased with their fight, particularly defence.
“You can get frustrated because we left a couple out of there but you’ve got to be really proud of what the guys did at key points; scrambled back, put their heads over the ball, scrum penalties when we needed them,” he said.
