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All Blacks coach Graham Henry gave his side a pass mark after their 41-10 win over Tonga in the opening match of the Rugby World Cup in Auckland on Friday night.
New Zealand raced out to a 29-3 at halftime lead at Eden Park but couldn’t capitalise fully on their pressure after the break, before having to do plenty of defending of their own late in the game.
“I’d say we’re over five — six or seven,” Henry said, when asked to rate his team out of 10.
“We scored some good tries and got maximum points, competed well and had a good structure, but made too many mistakes and gave away too many penalties – so a bit of work to be done.”
Henry said the tension after the wait for the tournament to start was probably the reason the All Blacks weren’t as free as they wanted to be.
But he also pointed out running up a huge score in the early stages doesn’t necessarily mean anything, citing what happened in 2007, when New Zealand exited at the quarter-final stage.
In pool play four years ago, the All Blacks racked up more than 100 points against Portugal, 85 against Romania and 76 against Italy in pool play.
“It didn’t do us much good,” he said.
Skipper Richie McCaw said the All Blacks spoke at halftime about maintaining their structure and not giving away turnovers, and their failure to do that was disappointing.
But he also said there were plenty of positives from their performance, particularly how things they had practised came off early on.
“It’s just a pity we didn’t do it for the full 80 minutes,” McCaw said.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.