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the All the black people set a “scoreboard” with his convincing victory over the Wallabies but they must keep improving if they want to retain the Bledisloe Cup, new coach Ian foster he said on Sunday.
New Zealand needed a four-to-one, 27-7 victory in Auckland after they started the four-game series with a disappointing draw last week in Wellington, Foster’s first game in charge.
But aside from the devastation caused by sensational rookie Caleb Clarke, it wasn’t the performance Foster was looking for. The All Blacks held a 10-7 lead at halftime before changing style in the second period with three unanswered attempts.
“That’s the level we have to start at,” Foster said.
“We have established a marker of where we should be as a team in terms of the mental part of the game and the focus on physicality and speed of the game.
“Was it a perfect performance? No, it wasn’t … We just have to climb because it’s a tough series. This is a better Wallabies team than I’ve seen in a while and they want to stay in the fight.”
The performance of the All Blacks was a considerable improvement over their display in the first test drawn 16-16, while for the Wallabies it was a significant step back.
Wallabies coach Dave Rennie had a direct message to his squad about his high error rate, particularly missing 40 tackles.
“The national team can sometimes fix that,” he warned. “We turned the ball a lot and missed too many tackles. Individual tackles were bad and they put us under their pressure.
“In general, we were not as sharp as last week and we gave them a lot of space and opportunities.”
Much of the damage inflicted by the All Blacks came from Clarke, 21, who started a test for the first time after making his debut in a 10-minute cameo from the bench last week.
His unbridled careers drew immediate comparisons to the great Jonah Lomu, the world’s first rugby superstar who retired in 2002 and died in 2015.
Although Clarke didn’t score himself, he put together a sensational shot from Ardie Savea and was often instrumental in getting the All Blacks out of their danger zone and attacking.
Clarke walked off the field to a standing ovation and Foster said he had delivered the level of performance he wanted from the entire team.
“He just wants the ball and he wants to run hard and it’s a very good thing for us to give him the ball,” Foster said.
“I think the whole team will be delighted for him, to see him race and do what he loves and that is what we should all do.”
The last two games in the series will be played in Australia as part of the Tri-Nations, also involving Argentina. New Zealand has held the Bledisloe Cup since 2003.
