A stunning first-half display of speed, smarts, and set-piece precision powered the All Blacks to a 43-17 victory over France in Wellington, securing their 50th win against Les Bleus and ensuring the Dave Gallaher Trophy stays in New Zealand hands.
All Blacks’ first-half subterfuge, speed of thought and execution ensured the Dave Gallaher Trophy will be back in New Zealand’s care after a 43-17 win, their 50th, over France in the second Lipovitan-D Test in Wellington on Saturday.
It was just as well they got out as far as 29-3 at the turn as the second half was a more contested affair, and not all of it as clear cut as the All Blacks achieved in the first.
Led once again by some outstanding forward play, locks Patrick Tuipulotu and Fabian Holland, with loose forward support headed by skipper Ardie Savea, who became the highest-scoring All Blacks forward with 29 tries, one more than fellow loosie Richie McCaw.
Tupou Vaa’i showed how quickly he has adapted to the blindside role, scoring another try while hooker Codie Taylor had another impressive workload.
France got into their action early, testing the All Blacks’ defence with a 15-phase assault on their line in the first few minutes. But a knock-on allowed the All Blacks to clear the line and build their attack, assisted by early lineout steals by lock Patrick Tuipulotu, who turned in a powerful display throughout.
First five-eighths Beauden Barrett gave them immediate reward with a penalty goal, and when getting back into French territory, the All Blacks used a lineout to flummox the French, a dummy run by No8 Christian Lio Willie leaving the way open for flanker Ardie Savea at the front to slip a pass to halfback Cameron Roigard who ran 22m without challenge to score in the 13th minute.
France landed a penalty goal in the 19th minute, but the All Blacks, back in the French half, worked another lineout move, this time with Savea at dummy halfback moving into the maul and powering his way over the line.
The two sides ended with a man in the bin each. Firstly, Beauden Barrett was sin-binned after 18 minutes for a deliberate knockdown when French players were unmarked outside. Then, after the Savea try, another All Blacks attack saw second five-eighths Jordie Barrett tip-tackled, resulting in lock Josh Brennan being sin-binned.
The All Blacks kicked to touch and launched a regulation lineout drive for hooker Codie Taylor to score.
They were just warming up as they showed after 35 minutes when Savea was positioned at centre and broke the attempted tackle of Joris Segonds, and then, when tackled, fed wing Rieko Ioane, who then got a pass away to lock Fabian Holland. And he linked with flanker Tupou Vaa’i, who raced 22m to score.
Even when they went the length of the field to look like scoring luck, the French ran out of luck when the TMO pulled them back to the other end for the tip tackle on Jordie Barrett.
A 29-3 halftime lead ensured the French came out seeking some redemption, and with five substitutions in the first five minutes, accompanied by some untidy All Blacks play.
From that, France used penalty advantages to launch their first concerted attacks of the game at the All Blacks line and it was a well-timed incursion into the backline that produced a 45th minute try to fullback Leo Barre, especially after Jordie Barrett stopped them scoring another by getting under the ball as the French crossed the line to deny them.
It was a momentary reward only as the All Blacks took advantage of French indiscipline to work the penalties to get deep into the half with fullback Will Jordan the first to benefit in the 53rd minute, followed by Ioane who crossed in the 62nd minute.
Three minutes from the end, Brennan got over from a goalline maul after penalties conceded by the All Blacks allowed the French to get into the 22m area for a lengthy period.
Scorers: New Zealand 43 (Cameron Roigard, Ardie Savea, Codie Taylor, Tupou Vaa’i, Will Jordan, Rieko Ioane tries; Beauden Barrett 4 con, pen; Jordie Barrett con) France 17 (Leo Barre, Josh Brennan tries; Nolann Le Garrec con, pen; Antoine Hastoy con). HT: 29-3