Gregor Paul and Patrick McKendry are in Newcastle with the All Blacks and reflect on the victory over Tonga. It took a while, had a few iffy bits along the way and wasn't quite the emphatic statement they were hoping for, but the All Blacks did at least run into more convincing form in Newcastle.
All Blacks 47 Tonga 9 It took a while, had a few iffy bits along the way and wasn't quite the emphatic statement they were hoping for, but the All Blacks did at least run into more convincing form in Newcastle.
They will be happy how they left things in the end. By the final quarter they were whizzing along quite impressively and their pass and catch was on the money. They looked confident, eager and ready to get into business.
They would rather have managed 30-40 minutes at full noise, but they got enough to feel they are in a good place. They did enough to feel they are a team on the rise, stretching out nicely when it matters without yet having given too much away either.
Certainly the rest of the quarterfinalists will have watched that final quarter with an element of concern that the All Blacks are cranking the handle. They are starting to play like the All Blacks and that's the news no one outside of New Zealand wanted to hear.
The reason it took them a while to get there was because Tonga did exactly what it said on the tin: they scrummaged superbly, tackled things to within an inch of their life and stayed in the contest by being physical across the park.
Where this idea the All Blacks had an easy pool came from is hard to tell. Not as hard as Pool A, no, but Pool C has not been the pass and giggle as forecast. It's worth remembering that because the All Blacks are perhaps being judged against an unfair and unrealistic expectation.
That's not to absolve them of all sins - it's more about putting the reality of what they have faced into context.
Image 1 of 13: Sonny Bill Williams takes a selfie before the Pool C match between New Zealand and Tonga. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Tonga were full of big men, professional players all and desperate to make some kind of statement before they went home. Tonga were never going to be broken in the first 20 minutes. Probably not in 40 either. It was always going to take a bit of time, maybe 60 minutes to get the contest safely in the bank with the last quarter to open them up and head into the quarterfinals with the engine purring and the confidence high.
There was no sense of the All Blacks doing enough, though, in the first half to be certain Tonga were on track to start wilting later in the piece. The All Blacks couldn't hold the ball for long enough to generate that intensity of pressure. They couldn't keep the Tongans running for sustained periods to burn their aerobic reserves.
What breeds confidence in this All Black side, though, is their ability to stay patient. They could have let anxiety creep into their work after another opening 40 minutes that didn't really go the way they wanted.
There were still a few unforced errors that meant hands rushing to head, mouths agape. None was more galling that Waisake Naholo dropping a pass with a four man overlap outside him.
But they stayed calm. Stayed strong mentally and tightened their execution and the final 20 minutes did indeed look the way they wanted.
The black machine was finally running as it should. There was control and poise and at times, incredible skill execution. Daniel Carter was back somewhere closer to where he was at Eden Park in August and when he threatens the line and backs himself, the space opens up elsewhere.
His goalkicking also returned to form and his value in tight, tense games is going to be huge.
