The All Blacks’ identity appears crisis is over. In a brutal, clinical and decisive third quarter, the world champions showed why they are the best side on the planet, scoring three tries and effectively settling the match.

England, who had led at the interval, were blown away, gasping, grasping and, even though they salvaged pride with two tries in the final nine minutes, the sobering reality is that New Zealand have a gear that is beyond England at the moment.

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Even Izzy struggled to make an impact on the French defensive line

Playing in Melbourne, heartland of Australian Rules football, the Wallabies appeared determined to kick away possession, but derived little advantage from the tactic, and blew several promising drives with poor execution.

France executed the first promising move, however, a kick forward in the third minute sparking a foot-race between Foley and French full-back Brice Dulin to the line, but the Wallabies fly half prevailed by inches to cut off the chance.

The Wallabies were controversially denied what would have been the match’s opening try to number eight Ben McCalman on video review in the 22nd minute, prompting howls of derision from the stands.

Arguably the most exciting moment of the match came when Hugart got into a scuffle with Nick Cummins.

The French offered very little on attack, even when throwing the ball around in their carefree French style, it never really appeared to be anything the Wallabies defense couldn’t handle. The French spent most of the match defending with their wings up in the line. Which is what limited the Wallabies in attack.

If you can’t go around, you must either go through or over. With Les Bleus defense in the midfield near impeccable, the Wallabies needed to employ a kicking game. Yet with 14 players in the French line, their kicking options were poor.

Mid field bombs and long range kicks straight to the opponent is not what was needed. More attacking kicks, cross field and over the line, making the French pack, and their big midfielders turn and chance is what should have been employed. There was a complete lack of attacking kicking from the Wallabies.

Bernard Foley failed to identify where the space was and utilize it. As a result, the game was a grind. And not exactly enjoyable to watch.

The French were being dominated by the Wallabies channel one defense, but did the French look for a new tactic? No. For some strange reason they stuck with the one out plays. Possibly shifting their first receiver wider or a more direct pick and drive style would have been better options given the Wallabies defense. Even some outside-inside moves would have created more space for their forward runners.

As a result, the French lost a lot of ground and constantly found themselves on the back foot in attack.

A rather dour match, but never the less, the Wallabies have secured the series with a 6-0 victory.

Highlights

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New Zealand scrape past England in a tight one

With the game locked at 15-15 inside the final four minutes, No 10 Aaron Cruden remarkably turned down a potentially match-winning shot at goal and took a tap penalty.

Somehow his adventure was met with reward – eventually. Replacement prop Wyatt Crockett was held up just short from his drive at the line, but from the resultant scrum the All Blacks were able to finally put Conrad Smith across out wide against the outmanned English defence.

It was a fortunate victory indeed by a very rusty All Blacks side who never found anything approaching their ‘A’ game. A 15th straight test victory and a record 31st on the bounce at home was scarcely deserved, but again showed how good this New Zealand side is at the death of a tight test.

The depleted England side were good. Very good. But they were aided and abetted by an off-key performance from the All Blacks, completely lacking in the rhythm and the pace that you associate with this quality rugby side.

The world champions were strangely shaky under the high ball, awful with their handling, and too often kicked away what little quality ball they were able to muster.

The lack of team cohesion was rust, for sure. But not the handling and continuity errors. That was just poor concentration and execution. Israel Dagg, at fullback, made more errors in 54 minutes than he has for the entirety of the Super Rugby season with the Crusaders.

The first 40 minutes ended at 9-9 on the scoreboard, three penalties apiece, though with England very much on the right side of the balance-of-play ledger.

It was an unusual opening half of the new season from the All Blacks. Rusty, yes. But restrained, too. There was a distinct lack of ambition about their play, and a preponderance of kicking at the expense of keeping ball in hand, and building the phases.

It was as though the world champions were reluctant to be caught in possession by the visiting defensive line, and much of their kicking was either aimless or lacking aim.

Either way, it was England who played most of the positive rugby through the first half and also came closest to breaking the try deadlock. They probably should have scored around the 10-minute mark, but Mike Brown uncharacteristically knocked on with numbers in their favour close to the line.

It was a half very much played at England’s place – slow and methodical. And much of that was of the All Blacks’ doing as they neglected to play the possession football that is their hallmark at their best.

A 40 minutes that lurched from set piece to set piece very much suited the visitors, and some pretty ordinary play under the high ball and 11 missed tackles also failed to ignite the All Blacks’ cause. All told it was an unimpressive start to the new campaign from a side that never really made the step-up in level from Super Rugby.

The All Blacks failed to step up their game through the third quarter and were lucky to head into the final quarter of an hour on level terms, at 12-12, with a fourth penalty apiece.

Brodie Retallick’s big 70th minute break up the middle finally found England’s defence wanting, and when wing Marland Yarde flopped all over the ball, not only was he yellow-carded but Cruden was able to edge the All Blacks in front 15-12.

The lead lasted just three minutes before Danny Cipriani levelled when his own break forced the All Black error at the tackle.

But it was the veteran Conrad Smith who decided things with one of the more crucial tries of his long career.

Aaron Smith was a rare All Black to find some form in this forgettable encounter, the halfback’s sharpness and speed of execution at a level most of his team-mates failed to match

Skipper Chris Robshaw had an outstanding game for the English, while powerhouse No. 8 Ben Morgan also impressed with his ability to get over the advantage line, and sometimes well beyond.

Brown, at fullback, showed the class that saw him named the best player in the Six Nations and big Manu Tuilagi was again a metre-eater with all in hand. There was also plenty to like from a livewire display from inside centre Kyle Eastmond in just his third Test.

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Scotland overcome heat and USA for hard-fought win in Houston

The USA Eagles hoped to profit from their experience of the conditions on Saturday night as they returned to the city for their third high-profile friendly here against Tier 1 opponents in as many years, but Scotland shrewdly did most of the hard work early on to earn Vern Cotter a win in his first match as head coach.

This was a warm-up for their encounter in next year’s World Cup, since both are in Pool B along with South Africa, Samoa and Japan. With the temperature at 31C at kick-off, and humidity wrapping the stadium like a 15-tog blanket, warm was the operative word.

“That was tough, we’re not used to playing in heat like this,” said the Scotland captain, Greig Laidlaw. “It was a dry night but the ball was slippy.” Cotter said the heat created fatigue, which bred mistakes – the most serious committed by the Americans, who entered the game optimistic of victory. However, for the third year in a row they were unable to achieve a prestige triumph that would have acted like a neon sign illuminating the nation’s recent progress.

“I think the game tonight never really picked up any momentum, certainly not from our side but I think in general it was a very stop-start affair,” said the USA coach, Mike Tolkin, who was frustrated by his team’s continued growing pains.

Coming after the 51-3 defeat to Wales in Cardiff in March, this was a solid enough display from Scotland, though they picked up several injuries that Cotter said would be assessed on Sunday.

Scotland are 10th in the IRB rankings, the US 18th. The Scots have waited a long time for Cotter, an understated New Zealander and sometime farmer who was appointed in May last year but remained in France until the expiry of his contract with Clermont Auvergne last month.

“We’ll come back to basics. We want to do the simple things well,” the 52-year-old said. Scotland’s summer tour continues with games against Canada, Argentina and South Africa later this month. The Eagles next meet Japan and Canada, with the undoubted highlight of the year coming in November when they host the All Blacks in Chicago.

Italy beat the US 30-10 here in 2012 but Tolkin’s side ran Ireland far closer in Houston this time last year, losing 15-12 in a tryless, and often trying, friendly before a record home crowd of 20,181. This was far more open and entertaining, though the attendance was fractionally lower: 20,001, a fair number of them in kilts.

Cotter handed debuts to Glasgow Warriors pair Gordon Reid and Finn Russell, and Blair Cowan of London Irish. Alex Allan, who has just joined the Warriors from Edinburgh, was a second-half substitute.

Six of the Eagles’ starting XV play in England. Tolkin gave a first start to fly-half Shalom Suniula, the younger brother of centre Andrew Suniula, while Samu Manoa, the Northampton Saints lock, was unavailable.

Laidlaw saw his penalty kick from about 10 metres inside the US-half cannon off the left-hand post less than three minutes in, but his aim was truer from much shorter range a couple of minutes later. US full-back Chris Wyles levelled the scores with an 11th-minute penalty, which proved to be about as good as it got for the Eagles.

The first try came after a quarter of an hour, as Laidlaw fed Tim Visser for an easy score under the posts. It was a satisfying return to international rugby for the winger, who broke a leg last October. Only a fumble prevented him from scoring again soon afterwards.

The home side were further disrupted by two injuries in the first 20 minutes, with hooker Phil Thiel and Andrew Suniula forced off – an early test for the Eagles’ bench, which Tolkin had identified in the build-up as stronger than in previous years.

Scotland pressed down the left and Visser was denied a second try following a TMO review that determined he had lost control of the ball as he dived over the line. Indiscipline promptly cost the US, as prop Olive Kilifi was yellow-carded for collapsing a scrum before the French referee, Pascal Gauzere, awarded a penalty try. It was converted to make the score 17-3.

The US immediately responded with a powerful drive to the line – and over, it appeared. But on review, captain Todd Clever was found guilty of double movement. Still, it roused the already boisterous crowd, who were energised again when Wyles reduced the deficit with a 30-metre penalty kick 11 minutes into the second period.

However, American hopes of a stunning turnaround evaporated in the 66th minute with the highlight of the night, as full-back Stuart Hogg superbly collected a kick at halfway and dashed imperiously down the wing. Laidlaw converted the try from an acute angle and the tourists saw out the rest of the match.

Clever said that the US did not recover from the setback of his close call at the line. “The callback kind of took the wind out of our sails. We’ve just got to be mentally stronger than that,” he said.

“They didn’t have a platform to really launch their game but they never gave up,” said Cotter. “They’ve got powerful runners, powerful athletes. The energy coming from their team – they just need to channel it.”

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A real game of two halves, amazing come-back from Japan

Down 25-9 at the break, Japan stormed out of the gate and outscored Canada 25-0 over the final 40 minutes to stun the hosts 34-25 in the first game of the Pacific Nations Cup tournament for both countries.

Jones is back coaching after suffering a stroke in October, but that didn’t stop him from letting loose on his players after a disappointing first half.

“I’ll tell you what, it wasn’t good for my blood pressure,” said the 54-year-old. “We thought we were fitter than them. We thought if we could just hang in there … we were just like a boxer on the ropes hanging on there. And if you get a chance to throw a jab, you throw it, and that’s what we were able to do.

“It takes a bit of courage to do that, so I’m really pleased with that from the boys.”

Japan ran ragged in the second half, busting through the line for a pair of tries that left Canadian head coach Kieran Crowley shaking his head.

“We really played well in that first half. We put pressure on them, we scored a couple really good tries,” he said. “Second half, we had a couple bad defensive errors from set plays, which you can’t afford to do. They were pretty soft tries, really.

“Japan just took it to us and they deserved to win with that second-half performance.”

Yoshikazu Fujita, Yu Tamura and Hendrik Tui had the tries for the visitors, who won their eighth straight overall, while Ayumu Goromaru kicked five penalties and added two converts.

John Moonlight, Ciaran Hearn and Taylor Paris had the tries for Canada, while James Pritchard added two penalties and two converts.

Japan started to claw its way back after halftime with a try in the 42nd minute as Fujita dove over the line, and after Goromaru missed the conversion, the score stood at 25-14.

Goromaru then kicked his fourth penalty of the night in the 56th minute to make it 25-17 before Tamura broke through the Canadian midfield untouched in the 63rd, with Goromanu’s conversion cutting the deficit to just one.

Clearly rattled, Canada could barely hold onto the ball and Tui completed the comeback by again busting through the line to make it 31-25 after Goromaru’s conversion.

Goromaru added to his point total by booting another penalty on the last kick of the game for the 34-25 final.

“We always knew we’d have to cope with the physical onslaught of Canada at home for the first 40,” said Jones. “If we wouldn’t have given away that try away (before) halftime we would have been pretty happy, but 25-9 at halftime, you’re battling to stay in the game.”

Despite watching his team get bossed around in the second half, Tyler Ardron — a 22-year-old from Lakefield, Ont., who plays for Ospreys in Wales and captained Canada for the first time — saw some positives.

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Sexton’s injury clouds Ireland’s victory over Argentina

Chris Henry also crossed in the opening period for Ireland but a leg injury to Sexton 16 minutes from time will concern the coach, Joe Schmidt, before next weekend’s second Test at Tucumán.

“It was very hard going, we knew it was going to be physical which it was. We didn’t know we were going to be as inaccurate as we were. We put a lot of balls down and missed some tackles,” the Ireland captain, Paul O’Connell said. “They put us under a lot of pressure, I think the result is great but the performance is disappointing.”

O’Connell admitted the key now is to put in a good week’s work before the sides meet again.

“You look at what England did going down to New Zealand putting in a big performance against them, that’s what we needed to do and we didn’t do that. This gives us something to work on now and something to review over the next few days and knowing Joe Schmidt it will be a very tough review and hopefully our performance will improve next week.”

After a lively opening 10 minutes at Resistencia, the tourists made the first impact when Gabriel Ascárate was penalised for breaking the offside line, and Sexton made no mistake from the left-hand side. From the restart Ireland were guilty of handing easy field position to their hosts when Trimble knocked on, but Greg Feek would have been thrilled to see his scrum demolish the Argentinians on their ball and the resultant penalty released the pressure.

Eight minutes after he gave his side the lead, Sexton doubled that advantage to 6-0 when the Ulster duo of Darren Cave and Luke Marshall linked up well for a line-break in midfield and the scrambling Argentinian defence was forced into the concession of a penalty.

The Argentina challenge was dented when their No8, Benjamin Macone, was sent to the sin-bin in the 29th minute when he took Trimble out in the air, but despite their numerical inferiority, the home side stunned Ireland when Sánchez’s smart break sent Manuel Montero clear to score in the corner.

Sánchez converted to give Argentina a 10-6 lead, but Ireland hit back immediately when O’Connell got the maul rolling five metres from the line and Henry dotted down. Sexton missed the tricky conversion from the left but Ireland would have been happy to escape the half by leading 11-10.

Three minutes after the restart Sexton rounded off a super team move to bag his side’s second try. The move stemmed from a fine lineout steal from the debutant Robbie Diack, and after a powerful break from Jordi Murphy, Sexton linked up splendidly with Marshall to score an unconverted try on the right.

And just short of the hour mark, Ireland put the result beyond any doubt when Trimble intercepted Sánchez’s looping pass on halfway and had the easiest of tasks to canter home unopposed for a third Irish try.

Sexton slotted the conversion but he soon limped off with a leg injury, while his replacement, Ian Madigan, slotted two late penalties to gloss the victory as Tomás de la Vega crossed for a late Argentina consolation.

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South Africa start their year with a big win

The Springboks recovered from a slow start to outscore their opponents six tries to one.

Although the match did not carry full ‘Test’ status, Heyneke Meyer’s troops were tested in every facet of the game by a side packed with talent and up for the challenge.

World XV coach Nick Mallett said his side would have to pitch up with the right attitude and it was clear from the first minute that they had come to give the Boks a full examination.

South Africa led 18-13 at the interval thanks to tries from Toulon team-mates Bryan Habana and Bakkies Botha in reply to World XV lock Alistair Hargreaves’ opening score.

The lead changed hands a number of times in the first half as the World XV matched their hosts in the set pieces and did not step back in contact.

But as expected, the tourists’ defensive organisation ultimately proved their undoing as the powerful Boks clinically cashed in on the opportunities offered.

The Springbok pack took control in the second half though as two textbook mauls off line-outs gave the hosts a healthy lead before late tries from Johan Goosen and Willie le Roux added the cherry on top of a well-deserved win.

The tourists made the brighter start and found their way over the try-line after just five minutes as Saracens lock Hargreaves crashed over after his second row partner and countryman Juandré Kruger was stopped just short. Australian full-back James O’Connor added the conversion to cap a perfect start for the multi-national side.

The Boks replied almost immediately though as Morne Steyn slotted an easy penalty after the visitors were caught offside.

The World XV came close to snatching another early try but Matt Giteau’s grubber had just too much on it and beat Hosea gear to the deadball line. Mallett’s side  nevertheless had their tails up.

That would change at the end of the first quarter when Habana scored out wide after JP Pietersen threw a nifty pass between his legs to expose a massive overlap. The ball went through the hands to give Habana an easy run-in. Steyn’s conversion attempt sailed wide to leave South Africa leading 8-7.

The World XV only had two training sessions to prepare but their scrum got on top of the Boks in the first half, earning a penalty which O’Connor sent over to put the visitors back in front.

The lead changed hands once again on the half-hour mark as Steyn hit the target with a penalty against Hargreaves for being offside.

The Boks landed a vital blow just before the break with a refreshing display of counter-attacking as Le Roux, Habana and Victor Matfield combined to put Botha clear to score.

Steyn’s conversion into the wind crept over to give the hosts a seven-point lead but O’Connor reduced the deficit to five points after Bismarck du Plessis was caught way offside on the stroke of half-time.

The Bok fly-half extended the lead (21-13) soon after the restart with an easy penalty after Joe Tekori entered a maul from the side. Mamuka Gorgodze was given a yellow card for the same offence a few minutes later and the Boks used their numerical advantage to rumble over the line with a classic lineout-maul drive.

Bismarck du Plessis bagged his second try on the hour mark as the home side repeated the same line-out and maul with ruthless efficiency.

The wind was finally taken out the World XV’s sails when Jimmy Cowen was sin binned for stamping.

The Boks put the game to bed in the dying minutes as Goosen ghosted over from close range before Lwazi Mvovo put Le Roux away for their sixth try in the final minute, to finish an attack started by Schalk Brits in his own half.

The Boks will now face Wales in seven days full of confidence.

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Thrilling last minute try saved Tonga from defeat

The clock had ticked a minute past full-time with Manu Samoa clinging to an 18-15 lead when Tongan lock Josh Afu was pulled down in a lineout.

Referee Wayne Barnes had no hesitation awarding the penalty and Tongan replacement back Fangatapu Apikotoa calmly slotted the difficult 40-metre shot at goal.

Before a capacity crowd of more than 14,000, Samoa — ranked ninth in the world, four places higher than Tonga — were expected to produce a much improved performance from when they were humbled 33-14 by Japan last month.

But the injection of their senior professionals from Europe, who were absent in Tokyo, did little to lift their game and the crowd was silenced in the 21st minute when Tonga’s right winger, Otulea Katoa scooted over to score the first try of the match.

Fly-half Latiume Fosita landed the conversion from wide out for the visitors to lead 7-0.

In the closing stages of the first half, Fautua Otto opened Samoa’s account with a 65-metre run to the line before Afu crossed for Tonga to turn with a 12-5 lead.

A penalty by Tusi Pisi at the 60-minute mark saw Samoa close the gap to two points, and with 12 minutes to go Samoa captain David Lemi scored with Pisi’s conversion giving the home side the lead for the first time.

In a whirlwind end to the game Latiume landed a penalty for Tonga to level the scores at 15-15, Samoa immediately edged ahead with another Pisi penalty before Fangatapu stepped up to land the equaliser.

Final score Samoa 18-18 Tonga

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