The All Blacks scored eight tries in the Durban rain to shut out the Sharks 54-0 on Tuesday night, a result that landed in New Zealand at breakfast time on Wednesday and made it two wins from two on their tour of South Africa.
Kings Park was wet enough to turn handling into a lottery, and for the opening quarter it looked as though the weather might do more for the home side than anything the Sharks managed themselves. The All Blacks led just 14-0 at the break, through tries to wing Fehi Fineanganofo and fullback Damian McKenzie, both converted by Ruben Love. An earlier McKenzie effort had been ruled out after a video review found he lost control of the ball before grounding it.
The second half was a different match. Caleb Clarke crossed early in the spell and Love landed the conversion from the sideline to make it 21-0, and from there the visitors ran the Sharks off their feet. Fineanganofo grabbed his second, and Jordie Barrett, Kyle Preston, Timoci Tavatavanawai and Sam Darry all added tries. Love finished with seven conversions from eight attempts, several of them from wide out, in conditions that made goal kicking a genuine test. RNZ reported the All Blacks simply dealt better with the weather than the home side did.
It was a marked improvement on the opening fixture of the tour, a scratchy 38-21 win over the Stormers in Cape Town on 7 August that left more questions than answers. The tour, promoted as Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, runs from early August through to the middle of September and takes in eight matches, four of them tests. The first test is at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on 22 August, and the fourth and final one is scheduled for Baltimore in the United States on 12 September, an unusual end point for a series between the two countries.
Luke Jacobson led the side for the first time. The loose forward was taken aback by the appointment when it was announced, telling RNZ it was “a huge privilege” and that he was “pretty taken back by it”, adding, “I certainly didn’t think it would be an opportunity, but just really excited.”
Head coach Dave Rennie said in the team naming that Jacobson was the obvious pick. “He is highly respected, has a great feel for the game and will lead through his actions,” Rennie said. On the short turnaround between the two fixtures, Rennie said the opening match had given the players “a real introduction to the way that South African teams play and the Sharks will be no different”.
Two players were named to make their All Blacks debut off the bench, hooker Bradley Slater and loose forward Semisi Ta’eiloa. “On behalf of the whole squad, I want to congratulate Semisi and Bradley on achieving this very special milestone,” Rennie said. Slater’s involvement in the touring party was itself the product of an injury, with the Crusaders hooker called in after George Bell went down with a calf problem.
That is the part of the tour that will worry the coaching staff more than any scoreline. McKenzie scored his try and then limped out of the match in the 28th minute with his left ankle heavily strapped, an injury he had picked up early in the game. He was replaced by Emoni Narawa, and the substitution was widely read as precautionary given how close the test series now is. With a 54-0 lead building and nothing riding on the fixture, there was no reason to risk him.
The squad has already lost centre Billy Proctor for the rest of the trip. Scans after the Stormers match found a fractured shoulder blade, and while the injury does not need surgery, it carries a recovery of roughly 10 to 12 weeks, which ends his tour. Halfback Cam Roigard was also pulled from the side to face the Sharks with tightness in his calf, with Cortez Ratima moving onto the bench in his place. New Zealand described that call as precautionary too. Three withdrawals in the space of a week, before a ball has been kicked in the tests, is a lot of attrition for a touring squad a long way from home.
The most talked about moment of the night had nothing to do with the score. Ma’a Nonu, now 44 and signed by the Sharks only days earlier, faced his old team for the first time. Before kickoff he performed a solo haka from the Sharks bench in response to the All Blacks, a piece of theatre that will outlive the result in most people’s memory. He came on late in the game with New Zealand already 42 points clear. Nonu played 104 tests for the All Blacks between 2003 and 2015 and won two World Cups, and there is no other player of that vintage still turning out at this level anywhere in the world.
How much the 54-0 should be read into is another matter. These midweek fixtures are against provincial sides in the middle of their own season, and history says tour scorelines against franchises tell you very little about what happens when the Springboks arrive. The All Blacks looked sharp, their kicking game held up in the wet, and the bench made a difference, all of which is better than the alternative. But the measure of this trip is four tests against the world champions, and the first of them is still a fortnight away.
Next up is the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on 15 August, at altitude and, if the forecast holds, in rather better weather than Durban served up.
What did you make of the performance, and does a 54-0 win over a franchise side tell us anything at all about the test series ahead? Leave a comment below and have your say.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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