Following a 37-20 victory for the All Blacks over the Wallabies in their Bledisloe Cup encounter, here’s our five takeaways from Yokohama.
Perfect preparation for the European tour: It was evident that these teams had not played for three weeks. Both were rusty, made errors and, despite the pace of the game, it was a pretty frustrating watch. However, matters improved significantly and it turned into an excellent game until Tolu Latu’s yellow card and Ben Smith’s intercept try, which ended the match as a contest. The All Blacks face Japan next week but their main focus will be on England and Ireland, who will provide stern challenges, but this has just clicked them into gear. For Australia too, it was good preparation. While they will be disappointed with the end result, they were competitive for most of the encounter and will bemoan a couple of small errors which relieved the pressure on Steve Hansen’s men.
Beauden Barrett the difference once again: While it wasn’t necessarily his best and most controlled display, the fly-half showed several classy touches to help New Zealand pull away. His try was evidence of that. It looked so simple and Rieko Ioane did plenty of hard work but, after making the pass, Barrett immediately tracked the wing’s run and was rewarded for his support line by touching down. He also produced a couple of sumptuous moments, one of which saw him replicate Carlos Spencer’s through-the-legs pass from the 2003 World Cup, and resulted in Ioane crossing the whitewash to rubberstamp the win.
A mixed day for Israel Folau: Plenty of onlookers have wanted to see the Waratahs man at centre but he didn’t quite have the required impact. Most of his best work came off counter-attack from deep, where he would usually be when playing in the back three, while the pass for Ben Smith’s intercept score showed poor decision-making. To his credit, he scored a well-taken try but it was not a particularly convincing display by Folau. It is worth persisting with during the European tour, especially if Kurtley Beale’s injury is serious but, should the playmaker be available, then Michael Cheika may look to start Samu Kerevi at outside centre following his impressive cameo on Saturday.
Ardie Savea is a class act: The Hurricanes back-row has played most of his 32 Tests off the replacements bench, and only came into the world champions’ run-on side after first-choice openside flanker Sam Cane sustained a neck fracture against the Springboks in Pretoria, but Savea was one of the All Blacks’ star performers in Yokohama. He delivered a busy shift, gaining 25 metres on attack from seven runs which included a clean break and three defenders beaten. Also impressed on defence with nine tackles and stood up well in the breakdown battle against the twin threat of Michael Hooper and David Pocock.
Superb second half showing from New Zealand: The All Blacks’ victories in their two previous Bledisloe Cup encounters against the Wallabies this year had one thing in common – they dominated after half-time in both those matches and it was no different in Yokohama. A converted Sefa Naivalu try just before the interval meant the teams changed sides with All Blacks leading 17-10 and although Australia came out firing when the second half started, the world champions soaked up that pressure and turned on the style by taking control of proceedings as the game progressed. Tries from Beauden Barrett and Ben Smith set them up nicely and although the Wallabies struck back with a five-pointer from Israel Folau, that was scant consolation as the All Blacks finished the game in style with a Rieko Ioane try.