Dave Rennie's second coming in an international set-up began the way plenty of New Zealanders hoped and feared in equal measure: with a win, a barrelful of tries, and a defence that leaked just enough to keep everyone honest.
The All Blacks beat France 34-32 at One New Zealand Stadium in Christchurch on 4 July, opening the inaugural Nations Championship with a five-try shootout that stayed alive until the final minutes. Scrum-half Cam Roigard and wing Will Jordan scored twice apiece, with debutant loose forward Peter Lakai adding the fifth.
Rennie, back in the New Zealand fold after his Wallabies spell and a title-winning stint in Japan, was pleased with the intent if not the accuracy.
"I love the effort. I love the optimism," he said.
He kept returning to the same theme — that a rebuilt side flashed real quality but handed France too many cheap routes back into the contest. "We couldn't shake them. We'd score, and then we made a couple of errors that gifted them good field position," Rennie said.
"I can't fault the effort, I love the mindset, we've just got to be a lot more accurate."
The numbers backed the ambition. Rennie noted the All Blacks generated lightning-quick ruck ball at a rate that "was almost 85 per cent, which is just outrageous" — the platform behind Roigard's two darting finishes either side of half-time.
Jordan's double carried its own milestone. The wing moved to 47 test tries, past Christian Cullen and into second on the All Blacks' all-time list, two behind Doug Howlett's record of 49.
Lakai, handed a start in the back row, was honest about the soft edges. "To an extent, we scored some brilliant tries, but we also let in a few soft ones as well," he said. He put France's response down to a familiar problem for a new combination still learning its shape: "We expected them to play quick, especially around the ruck, the nines jumping out, and they obviously came down the middle and they scored a few soft tries."
France, without the injured Antoine Dupont and several first-choice names, hardly looked like a side there to make up numbers. Damian Penaud, Antoine Hastoy, Théo Attissogbé and Matthieu Jalibert all crossed, and Jalibert's late try dragged the tourists back to within two points before New Zealand held on.
That context split the verdicts. Planet Rugby framed Roigard's night in glowing terms — four tries in four tests from a No.9 it called "absurd" for the position — and pointed to Rennie's fast, heads-up blueprint as the story of the night. Others were cooler: The South African ran the line that the All Blacks had merely scraped "past France 'B'", a nod to how much talent Fabien Galthié's side left at home.
Rennie, for his part, is not pretending the finished article arrived in round one. "We just need more time. More reps. More around combinations," he said. The Nations Championship, and a France rematch still to come, will decide whether the accuracy catches up with the ambition.
