All Blacks coaches say Slade took his opportunity

Colin Slade got a ringing endorsement from All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith after the first five-eighth scored 19 points in his first start in a rugby test to guide them to a scratchy 60-14 win over Fiji in Dunedin last night.

Smith was quick to praise the work of Slade following the match after the 23-year-old scored a try, kicked four conversions and two penalties and navigated the team around the park with aplomb in just his second test.

“I thought he would have struggled to have had a better game from the amount of footy he has had and the enormity of the occasion as well for him - he knew had an opportunity and he knew he had to take it – and I think he did that,” said Smith.

The All Blacks scored eight tries, four in each half, to thump an under-strength Fiji who battled gamely and scored two second half tries in still, bitterly cold conditions in front of a disappointing 15,000 fans at Carisbrook.

The match, which doubled as a Canterbury earthquake appeal fundraiser and the final test match at the tired venue, struggled to get going with the rusty All Blacks forced into a number of errors by a tenacious Fijian side.

While Smith and coach Graham Henry, who said Slade had a sound game and was effective, were happy with the Canterbury pivot’s performance the man himself found faults in his display.

“There are still things I would have done differently in certain situations but you’re never going to get it right 100 percent,” he said.

But Slade said his 64-minute outing had helped with his self belief after coming back from two broken jaws and a limited amount of rugby heading into the test.

“I haven’t played a lot of test footy, but the more you’re exposed to it the better you feel for it so certainly it is a massive confidence booster for myself and I’ll take a lot of learnings from it.”

Slade kicked an early penalty to get his first points in test rugby before Sitiveni Sivivatu, who was back to his best after an uninspiring Super 15 season, scored his fifth try in tests against the country of his birth.

A second Slade penalty followed before he regathered his own chip kick to score under the posts. Further tries to hooker Andrew Hore and Adam Thomson just before the break gave the All Blacks a 32-0 halftime lead.

Staring a heavy defeat in the face, Fiji battled back after the resumption to dominate the early stages of the second half and they were rewarded when No. 8 Sakiusa Matadigo raced down the sideline before passing inside to busy halfback Nemia Serelevu to get Fiji on the board.

A kick in behind the line by replacement halfback Piri Weepu saw Conrad Smith outpace Ma’a nonu to grab the All Blacks’ fifth try and it was another Weepu kick that ended with substitute winger Ben Smith putting the Hurricanes No.9 over.

But Fiji, who had been disrupting All Blacks ball all evening, did so again to spark their second try to substitute wing Vereniki Goneva showed some handy touches with his boot before dotting down.

The All Blacks’ pack got reward for their dominance at scrum time throughout the match in the final 10 minutes when referee Stu Dickinson awarded a penalty try after a five-metre scrum collapsed and they rounded off the scoring when wing Zac Guildford set Mils Muiliaina, playing his 95th test, away with only minutes left.