All Blacks crush the Japanese by a humiliating margin of 83-7: Rugby World Cup News
New Zealand scored 13 tries to thump the meagre Japanese side at Hamilton by 83-7 on September 16. Colin Slade was the leading scorer for All Blacks with 23 individual points. Richard Kahui and Sonny Bill Williams scored two tries each for their team to
reach the final total.
Hamilton provided an excellent atmosphere for a rugby match as clouds covered the city with no chances of rain. The Kiwi squad formed a substantially different unit from their opening game of RWC against Tonga. Three big names including Richie McCaw, Dan
Carter and Mils Muliaina were missing from the party due to various injuries.
Former All Blacks player and current Japanese coach, John Kirwan, had also arranged his defending and attacking lines with new faces. Kirwan made 10 changes in his team including personal and positional shuffles.
Conrad Smith put the All Blacks on the scoreboard with a nice try in the beginning of the match and Colin Slade, who was given the kicking role in the absence of Carter, made no mistake on his very test. A flood gate of points was opened for the All Blacks
as they scored five more tries before the interval break.
Richard Kahui elevated his teams’ total with a five pointer in the 15th minute of the match and Jerome Kaino, Keven Mealamu and Andy Ellis also contributed one try each in the first-half and put their side into a comfortable position of 38-0 at
the break. Slade missed two conversion goal opportunities in the first part of the game but collectively he kicked on nine successful occasions for his team in the match.
Japan looked haggard against the Number One side during the match and their defence was totally ineffective before the rampant All Blacks. The New Zeland squad seemed to have free reign on the field after the break. Sonny Bill Williams replaced Cory Jane
in the 44th minute of the match and scored his first try of the match after just six minutes. Hirotoki Onozawa broke the long silence of Japanese in the 57th minute of the match and gave something to their supporters to cheer about. Murray
Williams score the conversion goal and made the score 7-57 for Japan. New Zealand ended up their splendid outing with a lofty total of 83-7 with the help of 13 tries.
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