'We were ruthless' - All Blacks' joy at wrapping up French series

All Blacks skipper Ardie Savea says his side achieved the “ruthless” performance they were looking for in scoring six tries to two during their 43-17 victory over France in Wellington last night.

Their attempted blitzkrieg attacks spluttered during the first Test win in Dunedin, but were far more polished at the Cake Tin with the All Blacks leveraging a strong and at times surprisingly innovative line out to pressure the visitors and effectively put the game to rest by halftime.

Watch now on TVNZ+ — Lineout play bamboozles French in dominant All Blacks win

“We spoke during the week about wanting to front up and work on the things we needed to and I thought the boys did that really well tonight,” Savea said. “I thought we were ruthless in most parts of the game and allowed our backs to finish things off.”

Three of the All Blacks’ four first-half tries originated from their lineout – halfback Cam Roigard’s neat set blindside move, plus two mauling tries for Codie Taylor and Ardie Savea.

Tupou Vaa’i’s try under the posts was the most spectacular score of the night, if not the series, and was a result of the pressure the All Blacks were exerting.

It was also a win for their offloading, run-and-gun style — clearly extremely hard to stop when done well — which they will want to ramp up even further for bigger challenges to come.

Second-half tries for Rieko Ioane in the left corner – a good finish after excellent decision making in the lead up from Du’Plessis Kirifi and Jordie Barrett – and the almost inevitable score for fullback Will Jordan allowed the home side to finish with a flourish at a place where they haven’t had a lot of success over the past five years.

Winning back the Dave Gallaher Trophy was clearly significant, too.

“It means a lot to us,” head coach Scott Robertson said. “We haven’t held the trophy for a long time. We handed it back to them seven years ago and it’s good to have a couple of drinks out of it and honour the great Dave Gallaher.”

There were other highlights. Defensively, the All Blacks were much better after being too easily opened up and conceding three tries last weekend, their kicking game was better, and there was a popular Test debut for Timoci Tavatavanawai — the back-up midfielder who was on in the first half as a short-term replacement and back after the break.

The Fijian-born 27-year-old, playing in front of his mother and two siblings who made the trip over, had tears streaming down his face during the national anthem.

“It was a goal of mine to play footy for New Zealand, for the All Blacks, and it was a goal of my dad’s too,” Tavatavanawai said in reference to his late father. “I couldn’t hold back… my dream came true.”

And there is no doubt that converted blindside flanker Vaa’i has the skills and instincts to play there fulltime if required.

Robertson will likely ring the changes for next Saturday’s third Test in Hamilton, which will likely mean a starting spot for Samipeni Finau, but Vaa’i is looming as an important piece of the head coach’s puzzle as he looks ahead to the visit of the world champion Springboks for two Tests in September.

Asked about his try, his second in two weeks, Vaa’i said: “We wanted to keep the ball alive and we talked about going through them early on.

“I guess I was in the right place at the right time… I’ll give the credit to Fabian [Holland], he was the one who gave me the offload to put me under the sticks.

“Ardie told us before the game ‘let the shackles off, be free, be you and play your game’. I guess that paid dividends for us tonight.”

In a pointed reference to last weekend’s constant interruptions from the television match official, who ruled out three All Black tries, Robertson said: “It was good to see the referee making the calls and the flow of the game… a couple of good maul tries… it was pleasing.”

Asked to rate his team’s progress out of 10, Robertson said: “We’ve got a game next week which we have to prepare for so I’ll answer it then.

“This is a series. We’ve won two but the third is just as important to us.”