Loading ...World Cup Opener – New Zealand vs Tonga
What a cracking game to come out of the draw for the kick-off of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The physical and skilful New Zealanders versus the big hitting Tongans, not only could we expect to see some smashtastic rugby but also the Haka and Sipi Tau going head to head. The last time this happened in a World Cup 8 years ago the atmosphere was a just a little bit special.
It was a bit of a surprise then that the first half passed by without too much in the form of big hits and big tempers. Dare I say that it was a very civilised affair? It took 37 minutes till there was even the first sign of hand bags and that was soon cleared up by the ref. For the most part the first half was dominated by powerful running by New Zealand breaking the Tongan line time after time. The Tongans weren’t doing themselves any favours by being so slow at the breakdown and the end result was a 29-3 lead for New Zealand, Kurt Morath with the penalty for Tonga right on half time. Standout moments of the first half were mainly courtesy of Sonny Bill Williams, some of his offloads in the tackle were outstanding and as a neutral it was a pleasure to watch an All Black team in full flow.
The second half was an altogether much tighter affair. After 50 minutes we got the first sequence of play that we were really expecting from the get go in this game, an amazing sequence of last ditch tackles stopping New Zealand from scoring what should have been a certain try. In fact it wasn’t until after 60 minutes that they did finally break through again. It was a second half that saw Tonga bringing out the big hits and the extra weight in the tackle seemed to put New Zealand off a bit as their handling errors increased, giving Tonga more possession. This started to pay off towards the end of the half and the Tongans were rightly rewarded with a try that came as the rsult of nearly 10 minutes of phase after phase pressure. All that was left was for New Zealand to score one more try in the last few minutes giving us the final score of 41-10 to New Zealand, I don’t think many people would have predicted that at the end of the first half!
A good game to open the 2011 Rugby World Cup, my man of the match is Jerome Kaino for New Zealand, nobody deserved his try more than him on the day.
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