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FULL TIME: New Zealand 41 Tonga 10
Good morning and welcome to New Ze…. well, no, we’re in the office.
But welcome to our first Rugby World Cup liveblog of the tournament. We’l be hitting the 50-mark by the time the Webb Ellis is won next month.
As I type, the greatest opening ceremony ever staged is ongoing. How would you sum it up? Think a DJ Shadow light show, add some Billy Elliott-stuff with a 12-year-old chasing a huge ball around the place. And then throw in a dancing, white-shoe-wearing Jonah Lomu and about two dozen ukuleles.
And a rugby game is going to break out in a bit.
Donal Lenihan’s suitably impressed by the ceremony: “there’s lifting… and there’s lifting,” he says as that kid is hoisted to the top of the stadium.
Lenihan spoke to our man Conor in a rugby meeting of minds recently, by the way.
“Enjoy the mighty All Blacks,” the country’s prime minster advises with a smile. Oh, we will Mr Prime Minister. We will.
The IRB grand fromage then declares the RWC officially open – but as Gavan adds in the comments section below: “The Rugby World Cup only officially begins when the Haka and the Sipi Tau are happening at the same time.”
How are we all feeling out there? Any predictions for this morning’s game – and the tournament in general?
While New Zealand catches it’s breath before the imminent kick-off, here’s Declan Kidney’s first World cup team selection ahead of Sunday’s game with Eddie O’Sullivan’s USA.
And it’s one to prompt some debate no doubt. Connor Murray starts at scrum half.
Hooky reckons only four teams can win this tournament. We also learn that Russia learned rugger from the army.
But who do you reckon will win the thing? Vote in our poll here – you’ll be rewarded with a multicolored pie chart.
So here we are, boys and girls. These are your teams. Boom!
New Zealand: Dagg, Kahui, Nonu, S. Williams, Toeava, Carter, Cowan, Woodcock, Hore, O. Franks, Thorn, A. Williams, Kaino, McCaw, Vito.
Replacements: Flynn, B. Franks, Boric, Whitelock, Weepu, Slade, Jane.
Tonga: Lilo, Iongi, Hufanga, Ma’ilei, Piutau, Morath, Moa, Tonga’uiha, Lutui, Filise, Hehea, Tuineau, Kalamafoni, Maka, Ma’afu.
Replacements: Taukafa, Taumalolo, Pulu, Timani, Vahafolau, Fisilau, Fatafehi.
Last shout for predictions. There might be a Rugby World Cup 2011 computer game for the right answer.
Last of the parish notices… RTÉ’s match commentator this morning is Hugh Cahill, who’s already kicked off his daily column for us on our RWC site.
What have we learned already? Donal Lenihan isn’t a man who’s afraid to ask for directions.
The teams are lined up for the respective anthems. And you know what’s coming next.
We’ve had the Sipi Tau and Haka – incredible, if you ask me – and Irish ref George Clancy gets us underway. Let’s go.
New Zealand almost get over in the corner but for a last-ditch tackle, and Tonga gift possession back to the hosts foolishly. More pressure.
Gavin the office tells me that remarkably, already you can’t back NZ on Betfair. 140/1 on Tonga, 210/1 on a draw, but nobody will lay on NZ.
New Zealand 3 Tonga 0
Dan Carter opens his account with a penalty. Donal Lenihan warns the Tongans of playing too much with the heart and not the head.
Jamie Heaslip and his team-mates are watching, we can assume. The Leinster man tweeted the following verdict on the opening ceremony:
So the All Blacks are looking good. We knew that anyway.
Dan Carter however has missed his second kick, the conversion, after that try. Weird.
Lenihan reckons Dagg will be the ‘rising star’ of this tournament. He got over after a 4-0n-2 situation when Ma’a Nonu off loaded quickly and he shimmied in behind.
The huge Tongan presence in the stadium are disappointed when their kicker Morath fails to get their side on the board. The lively-looking Sonny Bill Williams gave away the penalty.
The lads at Betfair tweet us the following: “Australia are the value on Betfair at 5.2 or just over 5-1.” France at 18-1, though.
TRY! Kahui gets over after an unbelievable pass from Sonny Bill.
Top, top offload as a pyjamas-wearing Jamie Redknapp is saying somewhere.
New Zealand 15 tonga 0
As LCD Soundsystem almost sang: Sonny Bill, I love you – but that try doesn’t count.
The All Blacks get over again but the whistle goes in George Clancy’s mouth due to crossing. “Harsh” is Donal Lenihan’s expert assessment.
TRY! New Zealand 22 Tonga 0 Dagg over again after another great Williams offload. Carter does what he does best from the conversion.
TRY! New Zealand 29 Tonga 0 Anything you can do, I can do better says Kahui, as he notches his second.
Bad defending from the Tongans really, Morath fails to halt the All Black’s gallop on the line. Guess what Carter did then.
Meanwhile in New Plymouth, Ireland’s squad take on a local representative side.
Sonny Bill Williams is the star of the show here isn’t he? Journalist Kevin Gartside writes, he’s: “Jerry Guscott in Jonah Lomu’s body. Quick, incredible hands, unbelievable athlete.”
The good news for Tonga? Well, it’ll be half-time soon.
New Zealand 29 Tonga 3 Kurt Morath arrows over a penalty to get Tonga up-and-running, thankfully, with the last action of the half. Phew.
Lot of navel gazing about the gap between the top rugby nations and the minnows. McGurk is blaming the IRB for not narrowing it over the past 20 years. They should make the All Blacks wear crepe paper trailing from their shorts.
Technical sidenote: Hooky says Japan funny. Jah-paaaaaahn!
Did you miss the Haka and Sipi Tau earlier? First of all; why? Secondly, here it is:
You’re welcome.
On the pitch, SBW – as I’ll insist on calling Sonny Bill from now on – almost wriggles through but is held just short. By this much.
The All Blacks’ run rate has slowed considerably. The huge crowd seem as vociferous as ever but the lull in play is good news for the Tongans who’ve stemmed bleeding.
Oooof! How did the Tongans keep the hosts out then? Amazing stuff.
Sonny Bill got on the ball, stepped on the gas and then kicked a lovely grubber inside on the outside of his foot.
Nonu and several other All Blacks looked they were to go over, SBW was rocked with a massive tackle as he tried to goose-step over, and ultimately the Tongans earn a penalty.
Weepu’s on for Cowan meanwhile, to a huge welcome. There’s louder cheers however when Williams is compelled to replace a torn shirt. The man’s a rock star.
TMO New Zealand 29 Tonga 3 George Clancy goes upstairs – as is the vernacular – after Toeava slides in for an apparent try.
It doesn’t count however as the official is told there was a foot in touch. The Tongans are keeping the score down admirably here.
TRY Kaino bundles over after great work from Kahui. It looked like the All Blacks has lost control of the ball in the scrum, they got it two Kahui who kicked, collected and off loaded after a perfect bounce.
Carter misses the straightforward conversion attempt, strangely.
Tonga are a couple of yards out for the past while trying to batter their way over the New Zealand line.
Meanwhile, John in Clonmel writes to say:
“I backed Tonga + 65 @ 10/11 hopefully their defence only leaks a few more tries.”
TMO Tonga are still camped on that line, after a period of sustained pressure on the NZ scrum. The crowd aren’t particularly impressed.
And as I type, they go over. George Clancy has again gone to the TV official.
Great scenes as the impressive sub Taumalolo does indeed make that pick-and-go count, according to the TMO.
TRY! New Zealand 41 Tonga 10 That’s more like it baby. Nonu strides over for the points – against the run of play remarkably. Lovely offload from sub Colin Slade at the last moment.
That try was great and all but it won’t mask a relatively poor second-half performance from the tournament favourites.
Graham Henry might be best advised to put his phone on silent after the whistle because there’s 4million rugby experts who’ll want a word.
The clock shows we’ve reached 80minutes.
And that’s all she wrote. Not to patronise, but Tonga did themselves proud and will take a lot of positves from the game.
New Zealand – despite some dazzling first-half, individual displays – will not be satisfied despite the victory.
What’s your verdict?
So, as Sharon Ní Bheoláin says, there we leave it. Please do continue to send your reaction, thoughts and tips.
I hate when Match of the Day show the league table on the first day of the English soccer season - but here’s your RWC standings after 80 minutes of action.
We’ll have more form New Zealand throughout the day of course – including Hugh Cahill’s piece from the stadium – and Conor will clock in for the first of our up-all-night liveblogs at 130 tonight. Seriously.
Sure take away Sextons wage for the next week and that will cover Connachts players, with a little bonus too. Then Rob Kearney who’s on big money can cover the Ulster Squad
I presume you’ll be chipping in some of your salary too?
@Cortiss: Given Munster are the most financially reckless province, and are unable to pay loans back to the IRFU on time to the detriment of provincial rugby in Ireland as a whole, I would say they should consider cutting their wage bill the most first. But of course, Munster is the best team in Ireland and deserves everything it gets, even if that is at the expense of fiscally responsible provinces, isn’t it Cortiss?
@Joe Vlogs: sorry we don’t have any D4 private investor snob , to throw us ball of cash down here in limerick.
Or fancy private schools with endless coaches and money, to train up your huge population of young fellows up ther.
@Cortiss: Spoken like a blind Munster supporter who ‘forgets’ that Sexton also captains the national side! Grow some kid! True rugby followers support all players and all teams because they love the game. You sir are not one of us…
@Paddy Waggon: You obviously haven’t been keeping up with the schools game in Leinster! BOTH finalists are from Kildare – which you may not know is a couple kilometres outside D4…
@Paddy Waggon: Yawn. I am from and support Connacht – please do keep up. We don’t have any big financial backer like JP McManus either. But Cortiss has been on record saying he thinks funds and players should be diverted from Connacht to Munster because Munster are the big team.
More like the big debt team. Taking our song is one thing…
@Joe Vlogs: ha good man. You really dont think ye have private investor s.
Good.
Love to be in uer head.
@Mark White: absolutely i wont keep up with the leinster school.
We all know you just googled that by the way.
Uer kidding no one.
@Joe Vlogs: fyi.
Jp gives his cash to the hurlers and few hospital. Not us reckless money spending rugby folk.
You should of really Google that one too
@Paddy Waggon: Nope. He helps fund Munster too. You should google that one.
If you were in my head, your spelling would be correct at least.
@Joe Vlogs: the Munster loans are from the development of an IRFU owned. On the other hand Leinster wasted 12million on Donnybrook before doing a feasibility study which stated there was little chance of planning to finish the ground as a home stadium. This shows that it is Leinster who are financially reckless. As for the wage bill, it is the IRFU who pay most players directly. Munster do not have a big name import and doubt Botha is on a big salary. As for the 2 SAs on the way, private funding is making this possible.
We might be in the midst of a frightening global pandemic with no end in sight, but it does give me comfort that provincially biased Irish rugby fans are still scrapping in comment sections over petty meaningless nonsense.
The human race will prevail!
@Oval Digest: We need to keep the vestiges of normality going on for as long as we can, don’t we? Glad to play my part #playyourpart
Thank feck the salaries of Snyman and de Allende are secure!
Be some craic at munster training next season with the rest of their lads having to reduce their turnip consumption on account of wage-cuts.
@Brian McHale-Boyle: their won’t be any wage cuts, even with two members of the bomb squad coming in, Rory Scannell is off to France and Cloete will follow I’d imagine. Also we will get some money from winning the league too
@Cortiss: Semantics! A pay “deferral” is a de facto wage-cut to a young pro on a small salary.
@Cortiss: no chance of winning the Pro14 unfortunately. Even were they to halt the league as is which would mean Munster hosting Cheetahs in a quarter-final prior I wouldn’t even see you winning that, but if you did Leinster away in a semi would I think be a step too far.
I dont have to Google it. My sister works admin finance at Munster, so i know he does nt.
Also im dyslexic, so that would explain the poor spelling.
Sorry to disappoint your with my grammer and spelling. So uer rite , if i was in your none dyslexic head , my spelling would be better.
At least you got one of your points correct.
@Paddy Waggon: I’m sure Munster Rugby will be delighted that their finance admins are talking about their business to people who then go off blabbing on social media about it.
@Pseud O’Nym: its not exactly a top class secret. Its known fact.
@Paddy Waggon: JP gave four million for Thomond Park, and ten million for the Rugby experience museum, so I would say he doesn’t mind throwing a bit of dough at rugby now and again. You would hope so too – if not, it is financial recklessness to be buying big name world cup winning South Africans with massive wage packets given how financially inept Munster have been for some time.
@Paddy Waggon:
By all accounts, while I was talking to some people in Limerick back beginning of this season’s PRO14 , the word on the street was that all aspiring Munster based rugby player hopefuls wanting to break-into the Munster Academy system .. had better to be a fluent Afrikaans speakers .. if they wanted a guaranteed in….
Meanwhile hopefully next season Connacht will gladly have an opportunity to welcome some more developing Munster born players like the Fitzgeralds ..:()
@Joe Vlogs: your just making stuff up now.
With all the home weights training. Will the Irish pros all be bigger when they get back into regular games?