New Zealand's TJ Perenara, left, and United States' Michael Baska pose with their rival jersey's following their rugby international at FedEx Field. Photo / AP
New Zealand's TJ Perenara, left, and United States' Michael Baska pose with their rival jersey's following their rugby international at FedEx Field. Photo / AP
COMMENT
If there was a winner at FedEx Field Stadium on Sunday morning, it wasn't obvious who it might have been.
On the most superficial level it was the All Blacks, they scored 104 points after all and won the test by a record margin. But was it really avictory in advancing the rugby education of the many fringe players they picked?
Was this one-sided romp a valuable tool in the growth of the likes of Ethan de Groot, Tupou Vaa'i, Quinn Tupaea and Will Jordan?
It's debatable certainly, because the Eagles, hardly a heavyweight at the best of times, were operating without their small contingent of European-based professionals: a group that would have given them the ability to offer some kind of resistance.
No one could fault the energy or urgency of the All Blacks, or their intent to play fast, dynamic rugby. They came out hard and fast, determined to play free-flowing rugby, but within a disciplined, structured framework.
And mostly they stayed true to their ambition: Tupaea kept things super simple, running hard up the middle of the field and flipping the occasional off-load.
Finlay Christie buzzed about, kept finding runners with a passing technique that just about held up and Jordan cruised all over the backline, popping up to facilitate flow rather than hog the ball.
And the veteran crew of Sam Whitelock, Richie Mo'unga, Dane Coles and Sam Cane all got some rugby into their system that will push them closer to being ready for the tougher challenges that lie ahead.
It was all pretty slick and to plan. No one went rogue trying to do it all themselves. Barely any opportunities were blown by greed or exuberance and there was only the odd moment of wildness, poor decision-making that saw the ball flung to no one or someone turned over isolated from their support.
But the US were so far off the pace, so ragged on defence and passive in nearly all aspects, that the test carried a falsehood for 80 minutes.
There was so little pressure on the All Blacks in so many parts of the field that it's hard to know what some players, not used to this level, would have learned.
Any mistakes they did make went unpunished. The big goal of tidying up the cleanout at the tackled ball area appeared to have been achieved, but then there was so little resistance that no one can be sure about that.
New Zealand's Beauden Barrett, left, runs in to score a try during the rugby international between the All Blacks and the USA Eagles. Photo / AP
There was value in having a mostly younger, inexperienced team prepare and then play at a major venue, but everyone has to be realistic that playing Wales next week in Cardiff will be an almost unrecognisably different challenge that will require the All Blacks to shift into a totally different mind-set.
The Eagles couldn't get numbers to the areas they needed so All Blacks ball carriers could get away with occasionally out-running their support or the first arrivals not quite targeting the right people to clean out.
The players can't be blamed for any of this – they had to respond to what they encountered and manage it best they could, which swings the conversation back to whether there were any winners from this encounter.
New Zealand Rugby pocketed $2m from the game, so again there is an argument the balance sheet was a winner on the day. But there is an equally strong riposte that seeing the All Blacks romp virtually unopposed, did little to enhance the brand or indeed rugby as a spectacle.
The US is bidding to host the 2027 or 2031 World Cups and it's hard to know what the uninitiated would have made of what they saw.
New Zealand's captain Sam Whitelock, left, leads the haka ahead of the rugby international between the All Blacks and the USA Eagles. Photo / AP
The speed and athleticism of the All Blacks would have been hard to miss. The skill level would have been apparent but so too would have it have been obvious to anyone with not the first clue of how the game actually works, that the US were hopelessly inferior and that sport doesn't work without tension and drama.
Maybe, then, the winner in all this was the sense of scale and opportunity that emanated from the enormous FedEx Field Stadium and the iconic landmarks of Washington DC that popped up during gaps in play.
Even if the Eagles are not ready or prepared to make an impact at the World Cup, the USA, with its incredible wealth and infrastructure, is.
