All Blacks end tour with big win

Baa-baas fail to click behind the scrum

New Zealand thrashed the Barbarians 47-19 at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon. They had far too much firepower for the British club with its non-British players in a match that lacked intensity and flow.

The All Blacks scored seven tries to the Barbarians' three. Winning clearly meant more to the proud New Zealanders.

Before the start, the New Zealand anthem was sung - and then God Save the Queen, which not a Barbarian player sang because not one was from the UK.

The Barbarian pack did close-quarter things well, but once it moved to scoring opportunities the All Blacks were simply far too good.

It was not a flowing first half. The All Blacks' first try came from an overthrow at a five-metre line-out, which Marty Holah collected to power over through Matt Giteau and score. Aaron Mauger converted. 7-0 after four minutes.

In that half the All Blacks and the Barbarians eschewed kicks at goal and went for close-in line-outs. The Barbarians had four of them, the All Blacks two. The Barbarians had two five-metre scrums, the All Blacks one, but the New Zealanders scored the points.

The Barbarians scored an equalising try in brilliant fashion. At their third five-metre line-out they threw deep and drove a maul at surprising speed over the line for Xavier Rush to score. 7-7 after 15 minutes.

The Barbarian forwards looked stronger, but their backs with Lote Tuqiri at outside centre, Chris Latham on the left wing and an iffish Mat Rogers at fullback were disjointed.

They were more than disjointed when Latham wandered off to have a disjointed finger straightened. While he was on the touch-line the All Blacks moved to their right. Rogers got caught betwixt and between with Mils Muliaina on one side and Rico Gear on the outside. Gear feinted in and beat Rogers easily on the outside. 12-7.

The Barbarians were close again from a five-metre line-out. Tall Albert van den Bergh picked up the ball and bounced at the line in high expectation, but young Jerome Kaino dumped him abruptly.

The game plodded ahead until Morgan Turinui sliced through the centre. The break petered out for lack of support and suddenly Doug Howlett was racing off in the opposite direction. The All Blacks kept up their attack but Daniel Vickerman cleared off the line. The All Blacks won the subsequent line-out on the Barbarians 22.

From the line-out Ma'a Nonu cut back, stuttered and then accelerated past Bill Young with a hand-off. Mauger's conversion made it 19-7 at half-time.

The second half was rendered even more disjointed by the regular substitution of players, starting with five Barbarian substitutes for the start of the half. That could not have done much for Barbarian cohesion or the enjoyment of a contest for the 55,000 spectators who travelled to Twickenham.

The All Blacks scored first in the seconded half as they marched down in phases and then sent the ball right where Rico Gear dummied and cut back for a skating try over 22 metres. 26-7.

Gear nearly scored again, but Rogers bundled him over the corner post.

Then the Barbarians got their second try from a close-in maul. This time the scorer was the Italian prop Andreas Lo Cicero. Rogers missed the conversion. 26-12.

Aisea Tuilevu had a great run, but the next score went to the All Blacks in controversial fashion. On the All Black left their scrum-half Jimmy Cowan tackled Rogers late and around his neck, with impunity. Play went on and eventually a dubious pass sent Casey Laulala over. Mauger converted from far out. 33-12.

For quite some time the coming and going of substitutes was the match's major activity until a penalty on the 22 became a tap kick for the All Blacks and the as-yet-uncapped Kaino ran past large Gcobani Bobo - who did not touch him - and past Rogers, who barely touched him, to score a delightful try, which Mauger converted. 40-12.

The All Blacks were attacking again and threw a long pass just over the Barbarians' 10-metre line. Tall Albert van den Bergh stretched, intercepted and galloped giraffe-like the 64 metres down the field to the posts. Mauger gave chase but gave up as he could not gain a centimetre on the lanky lock. Rogers converted. 40-19.

The Barbarians attacked, but the All Blacks got the ball and the exceptional speed of Sireli Bobo - one of two unrelated Bobos playing for the Barbarians - easily outpaced Howlett to dot down in in-goal.

The drop-out became a scrum to New Zealand. They attacked and replacement scrum-half Piri Weepu went past Young and Rogers to score. He converted himself and the final whistle went.

Man of the match: Schalk Burger of the Barbarians tried, but not too many of the others looked urgent. Rico Gear ran smoothly for New Zealand and Keven Mealamu was busy as he always is, but our pick is young Jerome Kaino with the massive tackles and that try of sweeping skill.

Moment of the Match: Albert van den Bergh's galloping try.

Villain of the match: Jimmy Cowan's high tackle on Mat Rogers was pretty bleak - but if the officials couldn't see fault in it, who are we to pass judgment? No villains.

The scorers:

For the Barbarians:
Tries: Rush, Lo Cicero, Van Den Bergh
Cons: Giteau, Rogers

For New Zealand:
Tries: Holah, Gear 2, Nonu, Laulala, Kaino, Weepu
Cons: Mauger 5, Weepu

The teams:

Barbarians: 15 Mat Rogers, 14 Sireli Bobo, 13 Lote Tuqiri, 12 Morgan Turinui (Gcobani Bobo, 59), 11 Chris Latham (Aisea Tuilevo, 40), 10 Matt Giteau (Werner Greef, 40), 9 Justin Marshall (captain), 8 Xavier Rush, 7 Phil Waugh (Radike Samo, 50), 6 Schalk Burger (Radike Samo, 37-40) 5 Albert van den Bergh (AJ Venter, 40), 4 Daniel Vickerman, 3 Faan Rautenbach, 2 Brendan Cannon (Gary Botha, 40), 1 Bill Young (Andrea Lo Cicero, 40).
 
New Zealand: 15 Malili Muliaina, 14 Doug Howlett, 13 Casey Laulala, 12 Ma'a Nonu, 11 Rico Gear, 10 Aaron Mauger (captain), 9 Jimmy Cowan (Piri Weepu, 65) , 8 Steven Bates (Mose Tuiali', 52), 7 Marty Holah, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams, 4 Reuben Thorne  (Chris Jack, 52), 3 Greg Somerville, 2 Keven Mealamu (Anton Oliver 57-61, 69), 1 Saimone Taumoepeau (Carl Hayman, 57).
Unused replacements: 21 Joe Rokocoko, 22 Daniel Carter.

Referee: Andy Turner (South Africa)