And with that, I’ll be off to to attack my lunch with the same kind of remorseless appetite with which the All Blacks just savaged Canada. Bye!
Here’s a match report from Paul Rees:
They came in their tens of thousands to see the one team that resonates here, New Zealand, queueing in their black jerseys in the rain more than four hours before the kick-off, a swarm so dense that stewards struggled to find space for coaches and chauffeured limousines to get through to the car park. It was chaotic, but no one went home disappointed as the holders, easing through the gears as if running in a new car, outclassed committed Canada.
New Zealand secured the bonus point five minutes before half-time, but squandered four more opportunities through a mixture of dogged defending, handling errors in conditions which seemed no less humid for the roof being closed and the sloppiness that is often a by-product of mismatches.
Four tries in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, including one by Scott Barrett which followed earlier scores by his brothers Beauden and Jordie, doubled the score and gave an indication of what was said at half-time, although it also felt as if someone had belatedly turned on the air-conditioning. The brothers had already become the first trio of siblings to play for New Zealand at a World Cup, and they added another record by all scoring.
Much more here:
Mo’unga was deservedly named player of the match after an impeccable display.
And here’s Richie Mo’unga:
It was just something we’ve been looking forward to. To be able to come out and throw the ball around in such an awesome environment, the atmosphere’s outstanding, to play in a covered stadium meant the game could be a bit more expansive. It was a good time for us to try things, and experience a few new moves. It’s good to put these things into practice.
Kieran Read has a chat in the stadium:
It was bloody tough in this humidity under this roof, so it was a tough game. I thought we were all quite slippery, to be honest. It’s something to work on, and know you’re going to get those conditions right. I think we’re happy with the way we started both halves, but we also slipped off there at the ends of each half as well. Things to work on, but in these conditions its tricky.
Those first 10 minutes after half-time were brutal. New Zealand didn’t drop the ball or miss a chance, and Canada were blown away. “What happened to the All Blacks at half time to inspire that whirlwind?” wonders Robin Hazlehurst. “Did Steve Hansen take their biscuits away? Warning to Canada, never ever let the All Blacks lose their biscuits.”
If you’ve got no idea what he’s on about, watch this:
Exclusive: New Zealand are quite good.
Updated
Final score: New Zealand 63-0 Canada!
82 mins: Phil Mack boots the ball into touch, and it’s all over!
81 mins: The gong sounds, just as Jeff Hassler bursts into space! He passes to Nelson! Could they finally get their try? No! New Zealand break, and suddenly Beauden Barrett is running clear! He sprints towards the line, but three yards away the ball suddenly springs out of his hands like a crumpet from an overenthusiastic toaster!
78 mins: A lovely chip from Beauden to Jordie Barrett sets New Zealand off again, but he doesn’t quite escape the Canada defence.
76 mins: Um, not like that. Kieran Read gets a hand to their lineout, taps it back to a black shirt and New Zealand escape.
76 mins: Canada have the ball inside New Zealand’s half. The crowd noise picks up. Can they get on the board tonight?
73 mins: Oooof! Taylor Paris collides with Ardie Savea, head against head. The Canadian comes out of the collision worse, and is being treated. Savea, indeed, seems entirely untroubled.
Updated
71 mins: Now Brad Weber fails to collect Ben Smith’s pass, when he was otherwise in for another try. I think Peter Nelson got his fingertips to it, a slight deflection that might have been decisive.
71 mins: Andrew Coe fails to collect Peter Nelson’s pass, and a promising spell of Canada possession is ended. Sam Whitelock, Codie Taylor and Savea all come on.
70 mins: Ardie Savea and his goggles are about to come on. But first, a scrum.
66 mins: Mo’unga, falling into the middle of a Conor Trainor-Jeff Hassler sandwich, fumbles his attempted pass to Ioane, who would otherwise have had a clear run to the line.
Updated
66 mins: Phil Mack comes on for Gordon McRorie.
64 mins: An air of near-sanity has settled over proceedings.
61 mins: A couple of changes for Canada: Conor Keys off, Mike Sheppard on; Daniel Van der Meuwe off, Taylor Paris on.
Converted! New Zealand 63-0 Canada
59 mins: Mo’unga hasn’t put a foot, or indeed a hand, wrong all day, and that’s another cracker.
TRY! New Zealand 61-0 Canada!
57 mins: From a scrum Mo’unga confounds the Canadians by unexpectedly heading to his right, and then he offloads to Weber, bursting past, who sprints the last 40 yards to the line!
Updated
54 mins: Canada haven’t conceded a try for over three minutes.
TRY! Converted! New Zealand 56-0 Canada!
50 mins: Stop this madness! The outstanding Richie Mo’unga completes an excellent pressured catch, Beauden Barrett slithers through a defence busily assuming the ball would continue its path from right to left, and he sprints away, draws the last defender and passes to Brad Weber!
Updated
TRY! Converted! New Zealand 49-0 Canada!
47 mins: What a start to the half from New Zealand! This is remorseless stuff. Canada perhaps overcommit at the maul, Ioane pushes forward and lays off to Frizzell, and it’s another one!
Updated
TRY! And converted! New Zealand 42-0 Canada!
45 mins: Richie Mo’unga breaks through Canada’s line and passes back to Kieran Read, and he gives it to Scott Barrett, who has the most straightforward of tasks.
Updated
Converted! New Zealand 35-0 Canada
43 mins: A brilliant conversion from Mo’unga, whose kicking has been phenomenal.
TRY! New Zealand 33-0 Canada!
41 mins: A try within 45 seconds of the restart! It starts with Jordie Barrett brilliantly collecting Mo’unga’s kick, and from there they rip from right to left and Rieko Ione goes over!
Updated
The players are back out, and ready for more. A change for each side: TJ Perenara is off and Brad Weber on, and Eric Howard is replaced by Howard Quattrin.
For all that they lost out on a try because of a last-moment fumble, New Zealand’s handling has been very good. Indeed, the number of handling errors on both sides has been more than respectable, given that it’s so humid the players are essentially swimming.
Half time: New Zealand 28-0 Canada
41 mins: McRorie blooters the ball into touch, and the players trot off for a well-earned breather. New Zealand haven’t had it all their own way, but they’ve had most of it their own way.
40 mins: A fumble gives Canada the ball and a chance to clear their lines.
39 mins: Canada need half-time to happen, sharpish. McRorie clears into touch, and New Zealand have a lineout on the 20-yard line.
TRY! And converted! New Zealand 28-0 Canada!
37 mins: Coolly done! Perenara passes to Williams, whose gentle kick sends the ball bouncing between the posts for Beauden Barrett to collect and touch down! The conversion is a formality, and that’s the bonus point banked!
Updated
36 mins: The All Blacks have a lineout, about 10 yards out. One more before the break?
34 mins: Now Shannon Frizell drops the ball. New Zealand have collectively taken their eyes off it in the last quarter-hour.
32 mins: Scott Barrett bursts through Canada’s defence and dives for the line, only for the ball to plop out of his hands as he moved them away from his body for the touchdown!
Updated
31 mins: Another break, while a Canadian player is treated by physios.
28 mins: Canada push forward again, but Ciaran Hearn’s low kick is mopped up by Beauden Barrett.
26 mins: Canada’s pressure ends with them conceding a penalty of their own, and their finest few minutes of the match have not brought a point. New Zealand take off their tight-head prop, Angus Ta’avao, and bring on Nepo Laulala.
24 mins: Kieran Read concedes a penalty, and Canada kick into touch.
22 mins: Canada threaten! First McRorie and then Nelson sprint their way through the Kiwi line, into their half and to within five yards of the line, but they don’t quite make it!
21 mins: A bit of a respite for Canada, as Djustice Sears-Duru gets the physio’s attention for a bit.
TRY! And converted! New Zealand 21-0 Canada
17 mins: That’s try No3! Sonny Bill Williams feints left, jinks right and steamrollers his way to the line! Mo’unga does the honours with the conversion.
Updated
16 mins: And so it proves. He didn’t cross the tryline, did end up in touch and Canada have the lineout.
15 mins: TJ Perenara, right on the left corner, dives over a pile of bodies in the hope of reaching the line. The referee thinks he landed short, but is checking with the TMO.
13 mins: Canada actually had the ball in the New Zealand half for a moment there, but not for long, and soon enough NZ are back on the hunt. Jordie Barrett, though, is pushed into touch - Hassler, living up to his name - before he can offload to Beauden.
Converted! New Zealand 14-0 Canada!
10 mins: That’s not an easy kick, right-footed from the far right, but Mo’unga absolutely nails it.
TRY! New Zealand 12-0 Canada!
9 mins: A great kick from Richie Mo’unga in the centre finds Jordie Barrett all on his own on the right touchline, and all he has to do is catch it and touch it down.
Updated
7 mins: A Canadian has picked up the ball.
TRY! And converted! New Zealand 7-0 Canada!
5 mins: When the scrum finally goes ahead, the All Blacks push their opponents back over the line. Kieran Read eventually breaks off the back to touch down, but he goes a moment too soon and it looked to me like Lucas Rumball might have stopped him touching down, but the referee is convinced!
Updated
4 mins: They’re having all sorts of trouble setting this scrum. They’ve had a couple of goes, but the referee has on each occasion told them to get up and try again.
2 mins: The All Blacks come this close to a first-minute try, but when they drive the ball over the line a Canadian hand manages to keep it off the ground.
1 min: They’re off! The Kiwis keep the ball from the start, and the pressure is on.
Ready to go. Beauden Barrett has the ball.
Anthems sung. Haka roared. Kick-off next.
Updated
Canada win the battle of the anthems. Also, lots of good facial hair. So far, they’re way on top.
The players are in the tunnel, and currently being drummed out! One thing I hadn’t noticed before is that the drummers mime, stopping their sticks a few inches before the skin of the drums.
Updated
No rain inside the stadium, mind: the roof is firmly closed, as you can see:
Rain is forecast all night in Oita. This is bad news for anyone attending the game, and there’s more bad news once they arrive at the stadium and have their soggy umbrellas confiscated. Still, security.
Hello world!
Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian’s film reviewer, gave Dumbo one out of a possible five stars. “Tim Burton’s new Dumbo lands in the multiplex big top with a dull thud,” he blasted, calling it “a flightless pachyderm of a film” that had been “painfully de-tusked”. The Observer thought it a little better, Wendy Ide handing it two stars but criticising the “overcomplicated onslaught of manufactured magic”. It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 47% and gets 51% on Metacritic. Dumbo is 100-1 with ye bookmakers to win the best movie Oscar this year; Canada are widely available at 150-1 to win this match. It is much more likely that one of today’s liveblog readers will be struck by lightning than that Canada will win this game. Kiwi website stuff.co.nz has compiled a brief list of similar things more likely to happen than an upset in this game.
History isn’t very encouraging: the teams have met five times and the All Blacks have won the lot by an aggregate scoreline of 313-54. Only once – in their first meeting in October 1991, which they lost 29-13 – have Canada ended a game within 50 points of New Zealand.
“I have seen some of these guys run fitness tests so I know their fitness isn’t necessarily going to be better than ours. I’ve seen them make mistakes,” says Canada’s Evan Olmstead, who played for Auckland in last year’s provincial championship. So, there’s that I suppose.
Here are today’s teams:
New Zealand: Beauden Barrett, Jordie Barrett, Jack Goodhue, Sonny Bill Williams, Rieko Ioane, Richie Mo’unga, TJ Perenara, Kieran Read (capt), Matt Todd, Shannon Frizell, Scott Barrett, Patrick Tuipulotu, Angus Ta’avao, Liam Coltman, Atu Moli.
Replacements: Codie Taylor, Ofa Tuungafasi, Nepo Laulala, Sam Whitelock, Ardie Savea, Brad Weber, Ryan Crotty, Ben Smith.
Canada: Patrick Parfrey, Jeff Hassler, Conor Trainor, Ciaran Hearn, DTH Van Der Merwe, Peter Nelson, Gordon McRorie, Tyler Ardron (capt), Matt Heaton, Lucas Rumball, Conor Keys, Evan Olmstead, Cole Keith, Eric Howard, Djustice Sears-Duru.
Replacements: Andrew Quattrin, Hubert Buydens, Jake Ilnicki, Michael Sheppard, Josh Larsen, Phil Mack, Taylor Paris, Andrew Coe.
And here is a bit of pre-match reading, in the shape of Paul Rees’s match preview:
