KEY POINTS:
The All Black tight five were delivered a no-nonsense message at halftime during yesterday's big win after being "outpassioned" at the breakdown by Romania.
The East Europeans threw big numbers into the rucks and pushed hard in the scrums, resulting in a lot of messy, difficult-to-clear ball for the new No 8-halfback combination of Sione Lauaki and Andy Ellis.
"They had a big forward pack and one of the things they looked to do was hit the rucks hard and put a big scrum on," said Ellis, who made his first start of the tournament.
"They did that pretty well. They put a lot of numbers into the rucks, which made it a bit messy. It took us a while to adjust to it as we didn't have enough forwards in the ruck in the first half. We had just one or two when they were sending half the forward pack in there."
For his part, Romanian captain Sorin Socol said he was surprised by how passive the All Blacks were at the breakdown.
"Maybe they under-rated us in that area," Socol said. "They didn't really contest in the ruck like we do in Europe. Maybe it is a weakness."
Nick Evans said the tight five were sharply reminded of their primary responsibility at halftime - to secure a platform from which the ball could be moved quickly.
"They were big boys and they really hoed in but the acid went on the tight five at halftime to step up a bit more and create a platform for us - especially at the breakdown. In the second half we played a lot better than the first half.
"That first half they almost 'outpassioned' us at the breakdown by being more physical."
