Sports After Dark

In their final hit-out before the Tri-Nations the All Blacks had to work hard to put away a ferociously determined Canada by 63-13 in Hamilton.

Canada were never expected to give the All Blacks much of a challenge, but their dogged defence was able to limit their opponents for the first 60 minutes of the test match. The All Blacks back-line showed a lack of creativity and struggled to break the defensive line, while the forwards were not able to assert their dominance until late in the game.

Dan Carter bounced back from a slow start to bag himself a hat-trick of tries and a personal haul of 29 points. Carter was quiet in the first half but came alive in the second as Canada tired.

The scoring began in just the third minute when All Blacks’ winger Sitavini Sivivatu found a hole in the centre of the Canadian defence and scored without a hand being laid on him.

Once Canada realized they would see little of the ball for most of the match, they threw themselves into their defensive work and were able to hold the All Blacks out for long period.

There was a scary moment for New Zealand fans when lock Troy Flavell went down with an injury, which turned out to be only a dislocated finger. However Flavell continued to favour his left hand for the rest of the game until he was substituted early in the second half.

Stand-in centre Luke McAlister scored the All Blacks’ second try in the twelfth minute as sustained pressure led to an overlap down the left flank. Canada replied immediately with a penalty goal to James Pritchard.

Then the Canadians provided a shock to everyone when fullback Mike Pyke intercepted a pass and ran 80 metres to score. Pritchard’s conversion narrowed the gap to 12-10.

Debutante prop John Schwalger then got in on the scoring, crashing over in the right-hand corner to extend the All Blacks’ lead. After another Pritchard penalty closed the gap, the All Blacks put some respectability into the score-line as hooker Andrew Hore scored on the stroke of half time to give the All Blacks a 26-13 lead.

After the break the semi-professional Canadian players began to tire and miss tackles. This led to a rapid string of All Blacks’ tries, first to Carter just minutes after the break, then to Chris Masoe five minutes later, then Carter’s second in the 66th minute.

With the score getting further and further away from Canada, they launch a prolonged raid inside All Blacks’ territory. Aided by some poor All Blacks’ play, Canada came close on a number of occasions but could not cross the New Zealand line.

As the match passed the hour mark the All Blacks stamped their dominance on the game once more, marching down the field and setting up Carter for his third try of the night.

With the Canadian pack nearing exhaustion, the All Blacks were able to turn ball over seemingly at will and ran in two more tries, first to Doug Howlett, then a long range try to replacement Rico Gear.

Despite the losing margin, Canada can hold their heads high having fought hard and never given up. At the Rugby World Cup in France they would now consider themselves a chance at making the quarter finals.

The All Blacks can take some positives out of this game, but will need to improve their back play for next weekend’s Tri-Nations clash in South Africa. Too much sideways movement and few decoy runners allowed the defenders to slide across and make tackles, something South Africa excel at. The return of a specialist centre will boost the back-line, and playing the top loose combination will undoubtedly improve the quality of play, but on this performance South Africa may have little to fear.

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The All Blacks less than convincing in win over Canada by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.