“He’s got a bit of adjustment just to get into the flow of how we play but clearly we need to get him up to speed”. “Obviously we’re disappointed with the result against the All Blacks but happy with a lot of things in the match”, he said.
Advertisement
Defending champions New Zealand made it two World Cup wins out of two with an efficient Pool C victory over Namibia at London’s Olympic Stadium.
New Zealand made to work for World Cup while Namibia certainly didn’t come anywhere near disgracing themselves.
Nine minutes before the halftime break, off a throw-in, lock Beauden Barrett scored the pick of the bunch when he ran almost half the field to make an impressive try, giving the All Blacks a 27-6 lead. “We had good intent and we knew what we were doing”.
“I thought we were really incisive, we scored, I think, three tries off some pretty organized play – off lineouts particularly but it looked like we got bored, didn’t it?”
They plan to take a team with plenty of rugby under their belt into the knockout phase, with several physical training sessions over the next fortnight designed to stop them dropping their standards.
Colin Slade was replaced due to injury, but head coach Steve Hansen said it’s just a tight hamstring and nothing serious.
Back down the business end, however, and Sonny Bill Williams popped up with a trademark offload to set up Malakai Fekitoa under the posts with New Zealand scoring at a point a minute to lead 22-3. I don’t know how to fix it.
Savea got his first try of the tournament, but the moment of the match arrived when Namibia turned down a shot at goal for a kick to the corner.
Cane will be winning his 26th Test for the All Blacks and comes into the starting line up while Richie McCaw drops to the bench as the two exchange places.
Instead he saw a side play fluid rugby at times and then fall apart and let Namibia, a team with as many amateurs as professionals, win periods of the match. “A lot of people are supporting tier 2 nations and World Rugby are doing a great job in supporting us”.
‘There was a stoppage in play midway through the second half in which virtually nothing happened for six minutes, unless you count the ref talking to an errant player, a yellow card being issued, Namibian props and a wing running on and off, a couple of fleeting scrums, a couple of attempted scrums, and a penalty.
Advertisement
On paper this game was a walk in the park for the mighty All Blacks; the number one ranked team versus the lowest ranked team who qualified after seeing off Kenya and Zimbabwe in the African qualifiers.
