Three talking points as the All Blacks scorch France with seven second half tries

Alex Broun 15:02 09/06/2018
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  • Beauden Barrett celebrates his opening try.

    Refereeing blunders, All Blacks mistakes and a characteristic French fade contributed to an underwhelming 52-11 win – as absurd as that sounds – for New Zealand in the opening Test of the series at Eden Park.

    Here we take a look at the talking points:

    France make best of All Blacks’ slow start

    Les Bleus were able to at least dream for the first 21 minutes before the All Blacks, who were guilty of being too expansive too early, turned on the after burners and the Barrett brothers combined to score New Zealand’s first try.

    Barrett brother No1 Scott, popped it to Barrett brother No2 Jordie before brother No3 Beauden dove in the left hand corner to score.

    Before that France had done well to contain the home side, who committed more mistakes in 20 minutes than they would in a season.

    All the talk before the match was about how much New Zealand would win by, not if, and the team seemed determined to turn on a spectacle from the kick off.

    But as their stern coach Steve Hansen no doubt reminded them at half-time the game must first be won upfront before you turn on the razzle dazzle.

    They clearly heeded that advice and scorched away in the second half with seven more tries.

    New cap Karl Tu'inukuafe is welcomed on to the field by Joe Moody.

    New cap Karl Tu’inukuafe is welcomed on to the field by Joe Moody.

    A big welcome for big Karl

    In the 48th minute the feel-good story of the season so far took another step with Karl Tu’inukuafe coming on to make his debut for the All Blacks. And no sooner had the former bouncer taken his place than New Zealand won an important scrum penalty with a big shove. It helped turn the match in the All Blacks’ favour.

    New Zealand had started the second half as they should have the first, grinding out the hard yards before giving the ball to their sparkling backs. It may not have been what the crowd wanted to see but it was what was needed.

    Soon after the scrum penalty a clever kick through by Beauden Barrett set-up a Codie Taylor try and from then on it was all going to be one-way traffic, especially with the All Blacks. Ben Smith then went over a few minutes later, this time taking a final pass from Taylor.

    But it all started with Tu’inukuafe’s impact at his first international scrum.

    Thanks but no thanks Mr Pearce

    You don’t like to attack a young referee controlling his first major Test but three major errors from English referee Luke Pearce greatly assisted the All Blacks – as if they needed the help! It would not have changed the result but may have made a difference to the margin.

    Firstly he immediately yellow carded France lock Paul Gabrillagues for a tackle on Ryan Crotty, without using the TMO for a second look. If he had taken the chance to use the video replay he would have seen that the tackle deserved a penalty, if that. But Pearce wanted to impress with his speedy, and incorrect, decision that was then compounded soon after.

    While Paul Gabrillagues was in the sin bin France winger Remi Grosso was hit by not one by two illegal tackles in the same instant. First Sam Cane hit Grosso with a high swinging arm around the head then while he was going to ground Ofa Tu’ungafasi came in from the other side with a shoulder which clearly contacted Grosso’s head. It wasn’t that different to the tackle that saw Sonny Bill Williams red carded in last year’s Lions series but no action was taken by Pearce.

    Despite two clear red/yellow card offences the arrogant Englishman decided only a penalty was warranted as Grosso was already “going to ground”.

    The sin-binning and non-sin-binning completely changed the course of the game and destroyed any brave French resistance. To add further salt to the wounds Pearce awarded a late try to Ardie Savea that clearly should have been ruled out as Savea went to ground in the tackle before hand. Again – no use of TMO.

    Let’s hope we don’t see Mr Pearce at this level again until he learns a little humility.

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