Scrum-half Cam Roigard and fly-half Damian McKenzie scored two tries each and made a strong bid for first-team roles as New Zealand beat Namibia 71-3 in the Rugby World Cup on Friday.
Roigard had his double inside the first seven minutes of his World Cup debut and provided assists in first-half tries by McKenzie and Leicester Fainga’anuku, and in the second half to David Havili. The All Blacks scored 11 tries in all. McKenzie converted eight for a 26-point haul.
The New Zealand lineup wasn’t second string but featured nine changes from the team which lost to France 27-13 in the first match of the tournament, including the new halves pairing of Roigard and McKenzie. Both may need to be considered at least for bench roles in the All Blacks’ top lineup later in the tournament.
Roigard showed a sharp nose for opportunities and, despite rain which sometimes was torrential in the first half, McKenzie kept the ball in hand more often than playmakers Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo’unga did against France when poor kicking cost the All Blacks. Aaron Smith replaced Roigard in the 66th minute.
The All Blacks had a dominant set-piece and scored one of their tries from a tighthead at which they thrust the Namibia pack over its line from a five-meter scrum. New Zealand mostly targeted Brodie Retallick at lineouts, meaning not much was seen of Sam Whitelock, who equaled Richie McCaw’s record of 148 tests for the All Blacks.
It was expected they would outclass their tier two opponent but New Zealand will take heart from the fact they had a strong attacking focus, limited mistakes and maintained reasonably good discipline until replacement prop Ethan de Groot became the first All Black to be red-carded at a World Cup.
Groot was yellow-carded near the end for a dangerous standing tackle and it was upgraded to red on review.