New Zealand 43 Georgia 10
It may have been the first meeting between the countries, but Georgia did not have New Zealand on their minds when they selected their side for what was never going to be a contest of equals. They made 10 changes from the side that had started their first two matches and it may have been as well for the holders who, despite a fast start, scored only one try in a 52-minute spell after securing the bonus point that guaranteed them first place in the pool.
They finished with a flourish, but that did not mask the errors that had happened throughout and of greatest concern will be a scrum that spent the game going backwards. The All Blacks have in past World Cup fused scoreboards against tier-two teams, but at one point last night it appeared to have stopped working. New Zealand's outside half Daniel Carter is one of the game's all-time greats, but last night he was reduced to the role of a mortal, knocked off his lofty perch along with the rest of his mates by opponents who relished every moment.
Waisake Naholo was making his first appearance in the World Cup and only his second in an international after making a far quicker than anticipated recovery from a broken leg, having consulted a witch doctor. He first touched the ball 70 seconds in, looping around his midfield from a line-out just inside New Zealand’s half in a move that was easier to spot than stop.
Naholo hit the line with sufficient pace to leave the centre Tamaz Mchedlidze floundering and by the time he reached Georgia's 22, he swerved around the full-back Beka Tsiklauri and stopped the outside-half Alexander Todua with a hand-off before touching down with a flourish.
New Zealand slowed down after that. It took them 21 minutes to secure the bonus point and they suffered the indignity of conceding an equalising try in the fifth minute when Naholo was stripped of the ball and Jerome Kaino fumbled the pick up. Tsiklauri hacked on towards the line and took advantage of a kind bounce to score.
Red and white flags were still being waved when New Zealand's other wing, Julian Savea, scored in the corner and although Lasha Malaguradze's penalty from halfway, after Savea had held on to the ball after a tackle, excited the crowd, the All Blacks were using the occasion to run through their moves. Some will be taken back to the training ground and Naholo's desire to be involved was not complemented by his timing.
Savea's second try, after the No8, Kieran Read, looked one way and passed the other and the bonus point try scored by the hooker Dane Coles, after Richie McCaw had dragged defenders inside to create the space outside showed New Zealand at their basic but efficient best and Georgia, reduced to celebrating small victories such as winning a penalty at a scrum, looked set for a night of trying to charge down conversions, but the All Blacks became sloppy.
Naholo fumbled a pass from Carter, so did Sonny Bill Williams, and Georgia, led by Mamuka Gorgodze, the Toulon flanker for whom the chance of a rest could not compete with the opportunity to play against the No1 side in the world, kept getting stuck in. Their grit, combined with uncharacteristic sloppiness by the holders, kept the score at half-time to 22-10.
New Zealand did not use the interval to sharpen their skills. Read dropped the kick-off and set the tone for more fiddling and fumbling. If it were not for the colour of their jerseys they would have been unidentifiable from the team that has been some way ahead of the rest since before the 2011 World Cup.
Naholo would have scored his second try had Read’s pass not been ankle height, forcing him to check and after Savea’s midfield thrust failed to lead to a try despite the space he created, the forwards decided to show how it was done and enjoyed a few rumbles before Read was pushed over the line.
Georgia had little else to do other than tackle, but it was a task they performed with zeal, if not quite the intense relish they reserved for the scrum where Charlie Faunuina on New Zealand's tight-head was enduring a particularly uncomfortable night, fortunate that other than their captain, Georgia were fielding a pack made up of reserves. And reserves were something they had in abundance.
New Zealand: B Smith; Naholo (Fekitoa, 52), C Smith (Vito, 62), Williams, Savea; Carter, A Smith (Kerr-Barlow, 70); Crockett (Woodcock, 60), Coles (Mealamu, 70), Faumuina (O Franks, 60), Retallick, Whitelock, Kaino, McCaw (capt; Cane, 60), Read.
Tries: Savea 3, Naholo, Coles, Read, Fekitoa. Cons Carter 4.
Georgia: Tsiklauri; Aptsiauri, Kacharava, Mchedlidze (Giorgadze, 75), Todua (Sharikadze, 65); Malaguradze, Begadze (Lobzhanidze, 44); Asieshvili (Nariashvili, 50), Mamukashvili (Maisuradze, 65), Chilachava (Peikrishvili, 50), Chkaidze, Datunashvili, Sutiashvili, Gorgodze (capt; Mikautadze, 47), Lomidze (Koleishvili, 67).
Try: Tsiklauri. Con Malguradze. Pen Malguradze.
Referee: P Gaüzère (France)
Attendance: 69,187
(Guardian service)
