Blacks bash average Ireland
9 Jun 2012
SIMON BORCHARDT saw the All Blacks begin their reign as world champions with a 42-10 win against Ireland at Eden Park.
Hurricanes winger Julian Savea was the star of the show, scoring three tries on debut and becoming the first All Black to get a hat-trick against Ireland.
It took a while for the hosts to get going, as you’d expect from a team playing their first Test of the season, but once they did it was one-way traffic.
In the build-up to this game, Ireland coach Declan Kidney spoke about the good memories his side had of Eden Park having beaten the Wallabies there during the World Cup. And for the first 15 minutes on Saturday it looked as if they just might make more of them against the world champions.
However, three penalties from Dan Carter – two of them from 50m out – were followed by a try in the 25th minute that was a sign of things to come. Zac Guildford dropped an Irish kick just inside his half, but the ball went sideways and the All Blacks were able to send it wide to Conrad Smith, who switched with Sonny Bill Williams. The No 12 made one of his trademark one-hand offloads to Carter and he sent Savea away for his first Test try.
The All Blacks struck again just before half-time after a poor pass from Brian O’Driscoll inside the hosts’ 22 resulted in a turnover and an All Blacks lineout 5m out from the Irish tryline. While the visitors survived the subsequent attack, their line was breached a couple minutes later when Savea went over in the left-hand corner. Carter nailed the touchline conversion to give the All Blacks a 23-3 lead at the break.
That became 30-3 three minutes into the second half when good interplay between Smith and No 8 Kieran Read in midfield created space out wide for fullback Israel Dagg, who drew in the cover defence and put Savea away for his third.
Ireland finally crossed the All Blacks’ line when they turned over possession near their 22 and Jonny Sexton kicked down the right-hand touchline for winger Fergus McFadden, who was always going to beat Richie McCaw in a foot race.
Normal activity resumed shortly after, though, when Read broke away from the back of a 5m scrum and gave the try-scoring pass to replacement flanker Adam Thomson.
The final quarter was a scrappy affair as both sides turned to their bench, but the All Blacks managed to finish with a flourish when Smith scored their fifth try with two minutes to go.
Ireland have never beaten the All Blacks, and based on Saturday’s performance, there’s little chance of them breaking that drought in Christchurch and Hamilton over the next two weeks.
237 Comments
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9 Jun 2012, 16:11 pm
AB very convincing demolition job on Ireland.. men vs boys out there today
AB back line is a fine tuned machine with Smith, Carter, SBW, Smith, Savea, Guildford and Dagg being the benchmark for rugby teams anywhere on the planet..
I thought Hansen had botched his selection by leaving Ranger to play S15 while playing the likes of Guildford ahead of him.. perhaps that the only other alteration to this team I would have considered, plus Perenara ahead of Weepu
But NZ back line looks like a fine drilled machine in pure organized synergy with Carter setting the tone and orchestrating the symphony.
9 Jun 2012, 16:15 pm
Kieran Read really played well, just an incredible workrate around the park. Almost had a try off a kickoff. Definitely the best #8 in the world right now.
9 Jun 2012, 17:52 pm
Great game. I liked the way that Ireland started the game playing open rugby.
Some interesting decisions and performances.
I can’t believe Piri Weepu made his weight targets. he would have to be friggen hollow because he still just looks fat.
That’s a slap in the face for other halfbacks who have been playing well. Basically telling them they are not as good as an incredibly fat guy who mostly chooses pies over the black jersey.
9 Jun 2012, 20:36 pm
What a relief it was was to see someone at long last doing something about this “pick and go” nonsense which every team on the planet has used in some form or other. Heavies bashing the ball up and mindless defenses strung out across the field ready to counter.
Hansen and his team have to be congratulated on picking a rookie in Smith to move to ball quickly from the contact area to a properly aligned attacking unit. I noticed Smith managed on a couple of occasions to miss Carter at first receiver, and send the ball direct to SBW. This creates attacking channels left and right or a double round for the extra man. A simple ploy, but not every team has a direct runner with ball handling skills like Williams. I see the hand of Grant Fox at play here.
9 Jun 2012, 22:58 pm
@Transformation(Transformation)-160:
“piri is in the all blacks team for reasons other than rugby.” Interesting thought, but untrue all the same. Hansen wanted Piri there because he trusts him to do a job,no more,no less. I personally think he made the right decision favoring Piri over Ellis. To apply Sa quotaisms to Ab rugby landscape is dumb.
9 Jun 2012, 23:39 pm
@chch(chch)-203:
Do you want them to pick Ellis?
lol
We cant have 3 halfbacks with not one test between them.
I believe Weepu is there as he was the best halfback we had last year. Hes been
in the ABs for sometime and knows the whats needed in the International arena.
He will be there to help the new guys going for halfback
Once we have played a few newbies at half, his time will not be needed at the ABs
Thats the reason why i would have picked him, maybe Hansens thinking the same way..
But some peopole have a weight issue, not good attacking them for that.
I am sure you are not prime NZ beef with no fat.
9 Jun 2012, 23:44 pm
Chuffed for the AB’s that they have managed to unearth another Pacific Islander- well done to the scouts!
10 Jun 2012, 00:47 am
umfolozi, Savea is born and bred in Wellington..
NZ is a multicultural country where race isn’t an issue.. people like you make it one.
10 Jun 2012, 00:54 am
@UKKiwi01(UKKiwi01)-208:
whatever,i lived there and race is issue.dont kid yourself.
10 Jun 2012, 01:54 am
Last time I checked, NZ is the Triple Stars of the Pacific, East of the land girt by sea, south of the Kava drinking islands and west of the giant head statues of Easter Island…. Pacific ring of fire, pacific islands, so yes, we scouted our own, extremely well.
10 Jun 2012, 02:22 am
Perhaps the Aussies will unearth a few good players among the boat people arriving from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc.
10 Jun 2012, 02:50 am
@slavedriver(slavedriver)-209:
Ummm no its not.
Of course there will always be a problem with racists, they live everywhere.
But its nothing like South Africa or Ozzie for that fact.
10 Jun 2012, 02:55 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-212:
as long as you say so
10 Jun 2012, 03:08 am
@slavedriver(slavedriver)-213:
I do, i lived here all my life, unlike you.
10 Jun 2012, 03:53 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-214:
good for you,seems you know about everybody elses country too.you must have lived there all your life too .you get around dont you.
10 Jun 2012, 03:57 am
@slavedriver(slavedriver)-215:
Well i know a bit. Went to school, you should try it.
10 Jun 2012, 05:55 am
Well that was far better than watching a 90 nil smashing of Fiji!
That surpassed my expectations in just about all areas. I can’e believe how dominant & fluid we were in the first game of the season.
Can’t wait to see Nonu in.
50 next week, 60 the following.
Awesome, truly awesome
10 Jun 2012, 06:12 am
28 wins on the trot at Eden Park.
10 Jun 2012, 06:24 am
@NZINCHINA(NZINCHINA)-218: Mighty impressive record. I was there in 1994 when the French scored “that try”, since then, it’s been all memorable.
10 Jun 2012, 07:45 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-216:
primary school is not recognized as a full education in the rest of the world
10 Jun 2012, 09:46 am
@slavedriver(slavedriver)-220:
Capital at the beginning of a sentence and full stop at end please.
You learn this in Primary School.
Again, give School a chance.
10 Jun 2012, 10:11 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-221
There we go,I was just testing to see if you had even got that far.By the sounds of it you might just have scraped through.Good on you.
11 Jun 2012, 00:07 am
@Napier(Napier)-168:
Therein lies the biggest issue you have with your assumption that these guys were born in the islands. Most of them were not.
Simple history lesson here for you. In the 60′ and 70′s, many pac islanders came to NZ for factory work, and now we have over 450,000 polynesian people living here. Just because they’re dark skinned and have non english surnames does not constitute they were born up there. Your naivety is alarming.
Even if the ones born there did play for their own – and many of them do, they have neither the infrastructure , player base, level of competition and all the other things that comprise rugby. Your suggestion is romantic at best, whilst being disingenuous to suggest that NZ are both poaching, cherry picking or whatever else you want to call it.
11 Jun 2012, 01:05 am
@KiaKahaNZ(KiaKahaNZ)-223:
Dont kid yourself.They are doing all of the above you stated to suit themselves.
11 Jun 2012, 01:21 am
Hurri. who better to talk about “racism” then a bloke with the nik of “slavedriver”..
irony at its finest..
but I guess both he and napier will not mention the many Zimbo’s that have turned out for SA over the years.
KiaKaha – dont you know that our scouts scour the islands and select guaranteed ABs at the age of 6 months to three years old? thats how good our scouts are…
slavedriver and napier are jealous because their team could never put away a NH side the way the ABs did on the weekend… and if anyone knows racism, it is Saffa’s like these two… its in their DNA and their ancestral history… cant have the brown skinned boys beating skop an jag rugby, its not right for their supremacy issues..
11 Jun 2012, 01:44 am
@slavedriver(slavedriver)-224:
To suit who?
Can you please show me the proof where NZ have poached any of the current ABs. You must have the proof or you wouldn’t be going on about it so much.
11 Jun 2012, 01:51 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-225:
Yeah, Napier was having a bit of a fish there, he seemed to understand in a later thread. But as for slavedriver, he really seems a bit out of his league.
11 Jun 2012, 03:41 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-227: the guys a pacific island kiwi. the comment about the scouts unearthing him is a bit left field considering he’s NZ born.
u realise you guys are a bunch of kiwi’s arguing about racism on a SouthAfrican website?
11 Jun 2012, 04:03 am
oooouuuiii so sensitive some of these keewee blokes, I’n sure they use moisturiser as well………..
11 Jun 2012, 04:33 am
@poppa69(poppa69)-225:
Is it in our dna is it.Whats in your DNA,YOUR ANCESTORS.As soon as anything comes up about the sacred keeeweee they pull out the race card.Pathetic really.
11 Jun 2012, 04:34 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-226:
to suit who.the kiwi
11 Jun 2012, 05:42 am
@man1a(man1a)-228:
You seem to be way off.
I never pulled the race card. I have only stated that Savea is NZ born.
What i dont get and some of these guys are not listening is that how can we poach people born in NZ?
I have every right to ask how Slavedriver thinks all we do is poach.
A bit of proof would be nice, but not one little bit of evidence from the current ABs.
@whatever(whatever)-229:
And some of these South Africans spout off with no proof to back up what they are saying. Moisturiser is good for complexion. Face scrub first then moisturise…….Beautiful.
@slavedriver(slavedriver)-231:
OK so please answer the other bit of my question.
11 Jun 2012, 06:41 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-232:
I have given you a article before.Go and do your own research.
11 Jun 2012, 07:01 am
@slavedriver(slavedriver)-233:
I don’t have too, i already know the answers.
Look closely at the question, Current ABs.
You said we poach. Tell me what ones.
11 Jun 2012, 07:17 am
@Hurricane(Hurricane)-234:
Do you or are you just fudging the statistics to satisfy yourself.
11 Jun 2012, 12:27 pm
I have noticed how Carter operates in broken play. He spots which of the defenders is running back onside last, and then either gets the ball to the man that is running at that defender, or runs at him himself, to draw in defenders to cover that hole. There is usually one player hitting the hole, and one running off their outside shoulder (and inside if they can get there quickly enough), with the others running much wider to make use of any holes caused by defenders that have been sucked in. Simple, but effective.
11 Jun 2012, 12:27 pm
Kinda like Kiwis
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