Rugby World Cup 2019: Second-half burst set the benchmark – Hansen
Steve Hansen felt a much-changed New Zealand side set the benchmark during a devastating second-half burst in a 63-0 Rugby World Cup rout of Canada.
The All Blacks cruised to a nine-try victory on a humid Wednesday at Oita Stadium to go second in Pool B behind Italy after making a winning start to their title defence against South Africa.
Beauden Barrett, Scott Barrett and Jordie Barrett were among the try-scorers as they made history by becoming the first trio of brothers to play in the same All Blacks side in a World Cup match.
The defending champions showed Canada no mercy, scoring four tries in the space of nine minutes at the start of the second half, while Brad Weber grabbed a double before the hour mark and Richie Mo’unga was perfect from the tee in a one-sided encounter.
Head coach Hansen wants to see the All Blacks display such intensity throughout the rest of the tournament as they bid to lift the Webb Ellis Cup for an unprecedented third time in a row.
It was a pleasure meeting you once again @RugbyCanada. We wish you the best of luck for the rest of your #RWC2019 campaign.#NZLvCAN #BACKBLACK
— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) October 2, 2019
“It was a pretty good performance when you break it down. Particularly that first half of the second half they really came together and played good controlled rugby in difficult conditions,” said Hansen.
“The humidity was unbelievable, people at home will be wondering why they are dropping a few balls, it’s very, very difficult so I think they’ve done well.”
He added: “We’ve got to put that first 20 minutes of the second half and turn it into 80 minutes, if we can do that we won’t be too far away.”
Canada boss Kingsley Jones was proud of his players despite such suffering such a mauling.
“I’m really proud of the guys with the way they stuck in. We had big chunks of the game where we were really in the game, we had opportunities between 16 and 36 minutes, but failed to capitalise,” said Jones.
“The way we dug in for the last 20 minutes, I’m proud of the guys, they showed true Canadian grit and every one of themselves can look in the mirror and be proud of themselves.”
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