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All Blacks player ratings vs Japan | Autumn Internationals

(Photo by Koki Nagahama/Getty Images)

The All Blacks travelled to Tokyo to take on Japan in the first match of their Northern tour and were met by a plucky Brave Blossoms side that never gave up.

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A tight game in the opening twenty minutes gave way as Japan’s discipline faded deep in the first half. Three All Black tries by the half hour point put the home side under pressure but they bounced back with two quick tries to head to the sheds down by four points, 21-17.

The All Blacks kept the lead in the second half but never looked completely convincing in their 38-31 win. Here’s how they rated.

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All Blacks player ratings vs Japan:

1. George Bower – 4/10

Scrum platform was solid early. Pushed the pass a couple of times and missed a couple of tackles. Not Bower’s most imposing performance. Off after 54.

2. Samisoni Taukei’aho – 6.5

A late injury to Dane Coles meant Taukei’aho took over the starting role, but first few lineouts were troublesome. He burst through the Japanese line in the 10th minute on a set-piece play to set up the first try for Retallick and didn’t look back, fixing the lineout woes and dominating Japan in the carry.

Off after 54 mins in another typical Taukei’aho performance.

3. Nepo Laulala – 5

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Strong defence early and was asked to carry in close a bit. A couple of sloppy tackle errors but overall an okay performance. Off after 54.

4. Brodie Retallick – 4

Scored the opening try after a Taukei’aho bust up the middle and helped rectify the lineout after early wobbles, becoming the All Blacks main target on the night.

His night turned for the worse when he was called up for a low cleanout leading with the shoulder on the back of Himeno’s neck in the second half, deemed to be a red card by the officials. Gave Japan a one man advantage which they used to storm back into the game.

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5. Tupou Vaa’i – 5

Lineout wobbles early with two messy grabs, one of which led to a knock-on. A few errors with ball-in-hand including an attempted round the back offload gone wrong which was indicative of his night. Ruck work rather inefficient at times, but the positive for Vaa’i was his workrate with nine carries and 10 tackles.

Moved to No 6 for final twenty and played the entire match.

6. Shannon Frizell – 5

Got involved with the lineout as a third option, was asked to do a lot of cleaning work around the rucks. A couple of passes from the blindside flanker hit the turf. The pack struggled to keep efficient cleaning as second half went on. Off for Tuipulotu in the 62nd.

7. Sam Cane (c) – 6.5

Used as a running option in the midfield off short lineouts. Contested well at the ruck at times and won the All Blacks first breakdown penalty, got through 12 tackles, the most of any All Black.

Cane’s off the ball work a little less than his best with some inefficient angles at times as part of a pack that failed to handle the ruck as the game wore on. For the pack as a whole, despite a strong scrum, the maul was ineffective and handled by Japan rather well until the reserves came on.

8. Hoskins Sotutu – 6

Took the job as one of the All Blacks primary ball carriers. Got caught out on the edge in defence when Japan went wide early and turned the ball over reaching out for the All Blacks first try after a five metre scrum.

Tired out in the second half a little, but his carries were mostly effective. He bagged a try spinning over for a try to give the All Blacks a key buffer. Off in 65th.

9. Finlay Christie – 3

Had a poor first box kick to start his afternoon. Had overall good speed and delivery around the fast dry track in the first half. However, he had couple of key involvements leading to Japan’s tries. He made a bad read on Nagare’s try, getting caught out by Dylan Riley’s offload. Had a kick charged/intercepted for a try by Japan’s lock Warner Dearns.

10. Richie Mo’unga – 6.5

His first kick charged but he quickly recovered. Made a great cover tackle in the backfield after an early Japan break. Territorial management was good, Mo’unga varied his kicks giving All Blacks contestable opportunities but they didn’t take them, lacking aerial effort from the chase often.

Had a great nudge in behind the line midway through the first half caught by Braydon Ennor on the full but the centre was held up over the line. Produced some Mo’unga magic in the lead up to Ennor’s try with a skillful pass to Tuivasa-Sheck. Combination with Perofeta started to flourish as two pivots in sync.

Defensively a few hiccups, tried his best but got shaken off by Japan’s power winger Fifita. Almost intercepted by Yamanaka but the Japanese wing dropped it.

Some magic but not a total performance.

11. Caleb Clarke – 7

Strong ball carries as usual. Had a great aerial take under a Perofeta bomb but overall the All Blacks kick chase didn’t get many contests. A bursting run in the second half through five Japanese players announced his arrival in Tokyo with Godzilla-level path of destruction. Caught out on defence a few times as Japan stretched the All Blacks but provided impact through his 14 carries for over 100 running metres.

12. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck – 8

The All Blacks’ best performer in his first start at No 12. Solid first-up tackle on Japan’s first set-piece launch, carried hard on kickoff receipts and set-piece. Looked threatening with most of his carries. Had a beautiful set play from a planned lineout overthrow, providing a quick catch and pass inside to Sevu Reece who burst up the lineout seam and scored from 40-metres out.

Had some deft offloads to compliment his footwork, linking well with Mo’unga and Perofeta on multiple occasions. Put Caleb Clarke into a half-gap early in the second half and watched his Blues teammate break away for a try. Had five offloads and six defenders beaten and had a hand in multiple tries.

13. Braydon Ennor – 4

A smart kick in behind on a counter attack gave the All Blacks a five metre scrum. He was tested on defence with Japan’s screen plays, an awkward tackle and failure to roll away led to Japan’s first three points. Bagged a try after some smart lead-up work from Mo’unga, Tuivasa-Sheck and Perofeta.

14. Sevu Reece – 6

Kicked one out of the full after a blind side play from the scrum. Provided good kick chase pressure but didn’t get up in the air much. Got into the game half an hour in with a beautiful line inside Tuivasa-Sheck to break away for a scintillating try. Pressured in behind quite a lot by Japan’s kicking game.

Had some half chances but Japan’s defence covered well on his edge. Reece had a busy game and got through a ton of work.

15. Stephen Perofeta – 6

Some nice early touches injecting into the line and was prepared to have a run from the back returning Japan’s kicks. Had some golden touches, one in the lead-up to Ennor’s try and another half-break linking with Tuivasa-Sheck. Another from a scrum play put a gorgeous pass on the chest of Reece but the All Black wing ran out of space.

Some mixed moments, a drop trying to field a low Japan kick in the backfield led to the Brave Blossoms first try.

Reserves

16. Codie Taylor – 5 – On after 54 mins. A couple of lineout miscues with a new pack on the park. Got penalised for rolling forward too much.
17. Ofa Tu’ungafasi – 5 – On after 54 mins and did his job, got through five tackles as the All Blacks tried to weather the late storm.
18. Tyrel Lomax – 6 – On after 54 mins. A strong carry to start and good effort in defence.
19. Patrick Tuipulotu – on after 62 mins for Frizell in a reshuffle. Brought energy in defence and helped close out the game.
20. Dalton Papali’i – 6.5 – on in 65th. Brought good speed in defence and looked for a couple ruck contests. Got through an astounding nine tackles in 15 minutes and got the crucial penalty to end the game and save the All Blacks from embarrassment.
21. Aaron Smith – N/A – on in 62nd. Added stability that was missing from Christie at times.
22. David Havili – N/A – Had a nice intercept to stop a Japanese wide movement but was promptly turned over a moment later.
23. Anton Lienert-Brown – 5 – made a key cover tackled on Matsushima that saved the All Blacks on one occasion. Some nice touches to free up the outside man on attack. A bad switch with Sam Cane on the goal line gave Himeno an easy barge over and give the visitors a scare.

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Comments

7 Comments
A
Al 753 days ago

Foster is charge of the tour the games results will only get worse until the Big L comes if not two . The World cup sadly which we will not win because of that current coach

M
Michael Röbbins (academic and writer extraordinair 753 days ago

“Plucky” Japanese? More excrement from BS who evidently didn’t actually “watch” the match, at best glanced at it while already preparing his lampoon of SA’s performance in a week’s time. Too funny if it wasn’t so darn sad; almost as sad as Richie grabs-a-lot going for three extra points in dead time—will always and anon be the half-life, or worsely decayed, version of DC.

J
Jay 753 days ago

Where is the article for Japanese player ratings? It’s pretty disrespectful that RugbyPass frequently doesn’t bother to make these articles for Japan when they will for whoever Japan is facing.

L
Laurence 754 days ago

RTS an 8? What game were you watching? 5 would be generous!

J
Jamie 2 754 days ago

Carlos Spencer said it all after this warm up test versus Japan, it's not the time to be going back to the drawing board.
The fumbling inconsistency that has been the hallmark of poor AB performances this year is not a sporadic occurrence, but is becoming a bit too commonplace, the fallback commentary about 'we were prepared for this", isn't what teams at the peak of their game make because they make sure they have the winning edge is maintained, no matter how long the break between games.

C
CRZ38L 754 days ago

8 for RTS is a wee bit generous.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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