All Blacks crush Japan 64-19 in one-off Yokohama Test
Yokohama, Japan, AFP: The All Blacks crushed Eddie Jones’s Japan 64-19 in a one-off Test in Yokohama on Saturday as the visitors scored 10 tries in a routine victory. The match was the first in an All Blacks tour that will see them take on England, Ireland, France and Italy on successive weekends.
Japan drew first blood with Fiji-born winger Jone Naikabula steaming in to touch down by the posts in the fifth minute. New Zealand hit back when Mark Tele’a rampaged down the left wing and scored in the corner. Captain Patrick Tuipulotu then held off three tackles to bundle over the line before Damian McKenzie converted to make it 14-7.
Japan bounced back immediately, attacking off a line-out, punching holes in the defence before loose forward Faulua Makisi crashed through a wide gap off a close-range ruck. Japan lock Warner Dearns thought he had put the hosts back in front, taking a lucky bounce to break clear and gallop over the line, only for the try to be disallowed.
Then the flood gates opened for New Zealand with Billy Proctor, Sam Cane, Samipeni Finau and Pasilio Tosi all going over the line, the latter after a barnstorming run by hooker Asafo Aumua to make it 36-12. Just before the break the All Blacks packs smashed their way over the line with Tamaiti Williams grounding the ball off the back of a maul and McKenzie converting to make it 43-12 at half time.
Cam Roigard opened the scoring in the second half and took the visitors over the 50-point mark in the 44th minute after being let fly by hooker Aumua. Japan managed to give the scoreboard operators a respite, repeatedly pinning the now sloppy All Blacks in their 22, but not breaching the wall of the New Zealand defence.