A ruthless New Zealand piled on 16 tries, including five to Will Jordan, as they overwhelmed an under-strength Tonga 102-0 yesterday for their opening Test of the year in Auckland. Despite the lopsided result, both All Blacks’ coach Ian Foster and Tonga’s Toutai Kefu believed the match was worth playing.
“A lot will be made of the score, and clearly the score was one-sided,” Foster said.
“You can get a lot out of it because we had some real areas we wanted to target. There were moments when we started to get really flat ... but after a while we readjusted and started to convert the opportunities we got and that took discipline.”
Kefu, with 13 debutants in his side, saw positives ahead of their World Cup qualifying matches this month against Samoa, described the result as “unpleasant” but valuable. “It will be memorable for the new players but we move on. It’s a bad day at the office against the best team in the world,” the coach and former Australian backrower said. “We never gave up. The effort was fantastic. There was some execution and decision making we need to work on but you can’t fault the effort. It was the ninth time the All Blacks have notched a century of points and equalled their highest score against Tonga set 21 years ago, while Jordan’s five tries were one short of the New Zealand Test record set by Marc Ellis in 1995.

Second-string Ireland hold off Japan
Ireland shrugged off the absence of several senior players to edge Japan 39-31 in a thrilling nine-try summer Test as supporters returned to the Aviva Stadium for the first time in 17 months.
With seven of their contingent on British and Irish Lions duty and captain Johnny Sexton, plus Keith Earls and Cian Healy, rested, there was a fresh look to the hosts in their first meeting with Japan since the 2019 World Cup.  On that occasion, Japan pulled off a shock to top the pool and they threatened a repeat in Dublin, where around 3,000 spectators were in attendance at the venue.
Despite an error-strewn first-half from the Irish, they went in at the interval 19-17 ahead after tries from Chris Farrell, Stuart McCloskey and Finlay Bealham.
Flanker Josh Van Der Flier and wing Jacob Stockdale went over after the break while Joey Carbery’s four conversions were followed by two penalties that ultimately took the wind out of Japan. Michael Leitch, Timothy Lafaele, Siosaia Fifita and Naoto Saito scored tries for the visitors who dazzled with some of their attacking play, but were unable to hold on after going 24-19 in front in the second-half.

Fassi scores as BokS make winning return
Debutant Aphelele Fassi scored as world champions South Africa hammered Georgia 40-9 in Pretoria on Friday as they returned to international Rugby after a 20-month coronavirus pandemic-induced exile.
Playing for the first time since defeating England in the 2019 Rugby World Cup final in Japan, the Springboks were slow out of the blocks and trailed by four points after 25 minutes. But a yellow card to flanker Beka Saginadze proved costly for the visitors, who conceded two tries when down to 14 men, and were upstaged in the second half.

Adams scores four tries as Lions win tour opener
Josh Adams scored four tries as the British & Irish Lions got their South Africa tour off to a winning start at Ellis Park yesterday, defeating their Johannesburg namesakes 56-14 in a stiff early examination but to the surreal backdrop of empty stands. Louis Rees-Zammit dotted down the first try of the tour and there were more from Hamish Watson, Ali Price and Gareth Davies, all converted by Owen Farrell as the tourists successfully overcame a spirited home side in the first of eight matches over the next six weeks.