Tony Brown leads All Blacks victory over Samoa

By HERALD ONLINE STAFF

All Blacks 50 Manu Samoa 6

First-five eighths Tony Brown lead the All Blacks to a comfortable win in their first test match for 2001.

Brown scored 30 points in the 50-6 defeat of Manu Samoa at a wet North Habour Stadium last night.

Despite the drizzle, New Zealand ran in seven tries – three of them to Brown - and their strong defence limited Manu Samoa's scoring to two first-half penalties.

It took all of three minutes for the All Blacks to cross the Samoan line with Brown scrambling across to open his points haul.

Halfback Byron Kelleher began the movement with a kicked ahead after debut captain Anton Oliver found his jumper in the line out.

Doug Howlett picked it up the kick, but play broke down near the Samoa line. Brown made the most of a bad situation scooping the ball up and diving in over the line.

Brown failed to knock over the conversion, but a short time later slotted a penalty from 33 metres out after a high tackle on All Black centre Tana Umaga.

Manu Samoa's Silao Leaega replied with another penalty for a high tackle. But it was Brown's turn again for the next two penalties which he made easily.

With 20 minutes into the first spell New Zealand were up 14-3 with Brown's name on every point.

All Black lock Norm Maxwell briefly interupted Brown's run, dotting down just to the left of the poles 15 minutes before the end of the first spell.

Brown could not land the easy conversion, but got back in the points-scoring action again with another try.

The All Blacks had driven into the Samoan 22 and from the ruck, Kelleher's pass freed Brown who sailed through a hole in the backline to score under the posts.

He made good on the easy conversion bringing his half- time points tally to 21 - a sizeable chunk of the All Blacks 26-3 lead at the break.

All Black wing Doug Howlett showed some pace at the start of the second spell, injecting himself into the game after seeing little ball in the first half.

Brought down in his first break by Manu Samoa's Terry Fanolua, Howlett had better luck with his second when he picked up a quick pass from Leon MacDonald and kept going until he made the line for his sixth test try in as many matches.

Tana Umaga's first decent touch of the game set up the All Blacks next try.

Umaga went out wide to the right, nudging the ball ahead with his boot. Umaga dived for the ball with Samoa's Steven Sooialo, but it was a flying Troy Flavell who got his hand to the ball first.

Referee Peter Marshall went to the video replay for confirmation of the try, not that Flavell was ever in any doubt.

Brown made the conversion and the All Blacks pushed their lead out to 32 points.

Twenty minutes into the second half there was no pause in play to mark a significant moment in New Zealand's rugby history as the 1000th All Black came onto the field.

The honour went to Carl Hayman who came on for Greg Somerville. Mark Ranby, another contender for the 1000th spot, came on at the same time, but will take the number 1001 - reportedly because H comes before R in the alphabet.

At this point in the game, not a lot had been seen of Jeff Wilson. But as the game opened up, Wilson followed a jaunt down the left-wing with a pass to Brown who went over for his third try of the match.

Wilson got to do the deed himself moments later. He picked up an inside pass from the free-running Flavell and dotted down well clear of any Samoan defence to bring up his fortieth test try.

Despite the scoreline, the Samoans had numerous attacking opportunities, but steely All Black defence and the visitors ill discipline and poor option-taking meant their attacks yielded no second-half points.

As the first game of the season, the All Blacks were pleased with the result. Captain Anton Oliver said the side had spent a lot of time in a training camp working on their defence.

"A good defence wins the big games," Oliver said, adding that Samoa competed well.

"The ball was like a bar of soap and we decided we wouldn't play too much in our own half. We got it down the other end and asked the question of Samoa and it turned out very well for us."

New Zealand 50 (T Brown 3, N Maxwell, D Howlett, T Flavell, J Wilson tries; Brown 2 con, 3 pen)

Manu Samoa 6 (Silao Leaega 2 pen)

Halftime: 26-6