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It was a difficult day at the office for Canada as they were shut out 63-0 by New Zealand on a humid evening in Oita on Wednesday. They held on as long as they could in the first half, but with the All Blacks enjoying the vest majority of possession the scoreline seemed inevitable.
New Zealand took immediate possession as they regathered the kickoff and came within inches of touching down with under a minute on the clock. They might have finished the score earlier had the scrum sequence not sucked more than three minutes off the clock. As it was they drove straight through the Canadian pack and earned a penalty try five minutes in.
A second try came when Richie Mo’unga spotted Jordie Barrett wide open on the right side for the simplest of cross-kicks. The third went to Sonny Bill Williams, who blasted home from close range on the end of a flowing attacking move.
Canada nearly raced away for a try as Gordon McRorie broke free and put Peter Nelson away. The flyhalf stepped left and right but was just scragged short of the line. New Zealand eventually turned the ball over and won a scrum penalty to clear their lines.
Scott Barrett nearly got in on the brother act as he barreled through the defensive line only to knock-on in the act of scoring. Just to show him up, Beauden snatched up a rare grubber from Williams to touch down under the sticks with the Mo’unga conversion making it 28-0 at halftime.
The second half could hardly have started any worse for Canada. Within 10 minutes New Zealand had scored four times through Rieko Ioane, Scott Barrett, Shannon Frizell, and Brad Weber. The latter made it a double just seven minutes later. Barrett’s try was one for the history books, the first time three brothers had scored tries in a test match.
Several knock-ons in the final quarter squandered more opportunities for New Zealand, while Canada nearly had a score when Jeff Hassler broke down the right side only for the cover to close him down. As Canadian hands fell on hips, Phil Mack hammered the ball into the stands to bring an end to the contest.
It doesn’t get any easier for Canada as their next opponents will be South Africa at Misaki Stadium in Kobe next Tuesday. New Zealand will have another chance to stretch their legs when they take on Namibia in Tokyo on Sunday.
SCORING
NEW ZEALAND 63
Tries – Penalty try (5’), J. Barrett (9’), S. Williams (17’), B. Barrett (36’), R. Ioane (41’), S. Barrett (45’), S. Frizell (47’), B. Weber 2 (50’, 57’)
Cons – R. Mo’unga 8/8 (10’, 18’, 37’, 42’, 46’, 48’, 51’, 58’)
CANADA 0
TEAMS
NEW ZEALAND
1 Atu Moli, 2 Liam Coltman (16 Codie Taylor 70’), 3 Angus Ta’avao (18 Nepo Laulala 26’ {17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi 65’}), 4 Scott Barrett, 5 Patrick Tu’ipulotu (19 Sam Whitelock 70’), 6 Shannon Frizell, 7 Matt Todd (20 Ardie Savea 70’), 8 Kieran Read (capt.), 9 TJ Perenara (21 Brad Weber HT), 10 Richie Mo’unga, 11 Rieko Ioane, 12 Sonny Bill Williams (23 Ben Smith 52’), 13 Jack Goodhue (22 Ryan Crotty HT), 14 Jordie Barrett, 15 Beauden Barrett
CANADA
1 Djustice Sears-Duru (17 Hubert Buydens 68’), 2 Eric Howard (16 Andrew Quattrin 54’), 3 Cole Keith (18 Jake Ilnicki 49’), 4 Evan Olmstead (20 Josh Larsen 46’), 5 Conor Keys (19 Mike Sheppard 61’), 6 Lucas Rumball, 7 Matt Heaton, 8 Tyler Ardron (capt.), 9 Gordon McRorie (21 Phil Mack 65’), 10 Peter Nelson, 11 DTH van der Merwe (22 Taylor Paris 61’-73’), 12 Ciaran Hearn, 13 Conor Trainor, 14 Jeff Hassler, 15 Patrick Parfrey (23 Andrew Coe 51’)
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistants: Paul Gaüzère (France) & Alex Ruiz (France)
TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
