The All Blacks were too good for Fiji in San Diego. Photo / Photosport
The All Blacks were too good for Fiji in San Diego. Photo / Photosport
All Blacks 47
Fiji 5
The All Blacks presented a nod to the future and to the now in their successful excursion to the United States to leave Scott Robertson with several selection headaches.
With 11 starting changes from their scratchy 2-0 series sweep over England and six rookies introduced to the test arena, the All Blacks were never going to produce a perfectly polished performance against Fiji in San Diego.
While world No 10 Fiji are a significant step down from England, the All Blacks will be pleased to improve specific areas of their game, such as the shaky lineout, and with standout individual performances from midfielders Anton Lienert-Brown and Billy Proctor, the latter impressing on test debut in the same jersey his brother Matt donned six years ago.
The inexperienced bench injected impact, too. None more so than Chiefs No 8 Wallace Sititi who will quickly be pushing for a starting role after adding notable, powerful punch up the middle of the park.
Fellow rookies Pasilio Tosi and Sam Darry nabbed breakdown turnovers on the All Blacks line. Crusaders hooker George Bell bagged a late try on debut, too. They all slotted in seamlessly to state their respective cases for the Rugby Championship.
“Keeping them to five points is pretty special. We scored some great tries, we left a lot out there. I’m really proud of a lot of efforts and the six debutants who really stood up,” Robertson said.
“Billy had some great touches and really good moments. He was welcomed with a couple of shoulders on him and he took a couple of great opportunities so I’m really pleased for him.
“It was exciting to see how that talent went. They showed why we picked them. We’ve had seven debutants over the three games. It’s been intense with the travel coming over here. I’m pleased everyone has learnt quickly and been incredibly professional off the field.”
Others to impress included Caleb Clarke, who was busy and elusive in his first match on left wing since the Super Rugby final one month ago, and blindside Luke Jacobson, the pick of the starting All Blacks loose forwards, with his defensive and lineout presence.
This match largely went to script with the All Blacks leading 26-5 at halftime and running in seven tries to one. Robertson’s men were challenged at times, but not for any sustained periods, which points to much tougher tests to come this year.
Attacking execution, after botching several chances, remains among the most pressing improvements the All Blacks will seek in the coming weeks. The breakdown, where England found success and Fiji pinched three turnovers, and two lost restarts are other nit-pick areas to amend.
The All Blacks lineout, aside from one lost throw, vastly improved without Maro Itoje’s menacing presence. They turned the tide to pressure Fiji’s throw with Jacobson nabbing one steal and forcing another not straight.
With the scrum, despite fielding a new front-row, remaining supremely dominant to push Fiji off their ball on one occasion, the All Blacks relished a consistently reliable front-foot platform that allowed the backline to thrive with ample time and space.
The Lienert-Brown and Proctor midfield partnership flourished. Leinert-Brown assumed the physical, direct Jordie Barrett presence from second five to regularly punch through Fiji’s defence. One such carry sparked Cortez Ratima’s first test try with a decisive snipe from the base.
Proctor looked at home from the outset with his decision-making, sound defence, sharp distribution and speed through holes all shining through. While he claimed a try on test debut, Proctor’s selfless and accurate passing freed up Clarke on the left edge was telling.
The All Blacks were too good for Fiji in San Diego. Photo / Photosport
On attack, the intent to use slick, quick, soft hands and shift the ball to space was evident from forwards and backs.
Fiji’s defence couldn’t keep up at times. With a staggering 53 missed tackles their attempts to control the All Blacks pace was much less effective – a world away – from England’s relentless smothering line speed.
Fiji savoured fleeting moments of success. Fullback Vilimoni Botitu scored from Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula’s cross-field kick – the third try in two weeks the All Blacks have conceded in this fashion after two against England at Eden Park. Wing Jiuta Wainiqolo also lost the ball over the line. Otherwise, though, Fiji were largely on the back foot.
When Fiji did make inroads errors, the last pass or a wayward offload let them down.
The All Blacks suffered an injury setback with Ratima leaving the field for an HIA after his head made heavy contact with the turf but that allowed Crusaders halfback Noah Hotham to enjoy his extended 45-minute debut.
Ratima, having failed his HIA, will be out of action for at least the next 10 days but the All Blacks don’t play again until their opening Rugby Championship assignment against the Pumas in Wellington on August 10.
“Noah coming on so early he trusts and backs himself that’s a great thing,” Robertson said. “He’s an instinctive rugby player and he did that tonight.”
Ratima did enough prior to leaving the field to suggest he should retain the starting halfback brief for the Rugby Championship but TJ Perenara’s experienced return underlines the heated competition prevalent throughout multiple contestable areas of Robertson’s squad following three victories to start his era.
All Blacks captain Scott Barrett paid tribute to the six rookies who savoured their debuts in front of a passionate 33,217 crowd.
“It’s great for those guys to step in and take their opportunities, all six of them,” Barrett said. “From Billy starting and the rest of them running on it certainly had an impact on the game. Pasilio got his shoulder through the line; Sam Darry got a nice wee turnover and George Bell dotting down were nice wee touches in the game.
“I was happy with the way we played. We talked about grinding them down but doing that smartly. We held the ball and moved it nicely away from their first few defenders who were coming forward looking to put a shot on. We created a few opportunities by doing that.”
All Blacks 47 (Caleb Clarke, Cortez Ratima, Ardie Savea, Sevu Reece, Ethan de Groot, Billy Proctor, George Bell tries; Damian McKenzie 6 cons)
