Sonny Bill shines in All Blacks romp - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Sonny Bill shines in All Blacks romp

By Julian Guyer 14/11/2010 07:22:39 PM Comments (0)

Rugby league convert Sonny Bill Williams gave more tantalising glimpses of his special pass off-loading skills as the All Blacks overpowered Scotland 49-3 at Murrayfield on Saturday.

Powerhouse centre Williams, in only his second rugby union Test, repeatedly opened up Scotland's defence with deft offloads, and showed he has certainly caught coach Graham Henry's attention with his ability to flick out one-handers to put teammates into gaps while taking a tackle.

"He has got an amazing ability to offload the ball in the tackle," Henry said.

"I don't think I've ever seen any rugby player with that sort of skill before.

"I think he'll get more confident and even go to a higher standard in future."

Williams relished the opportunities created in a dominant All Blacks team to display his one-handed flick pass at the tackle line.

"I guess it comes from my league days, it's natural to me," Williams said.

"But I wouldn't be able to do that unless players were running the right lines off me. The great players I'm surrounded by makes it easier."

The All Blacks were out of sight before the half hour mark after four tries, all converted by Dan Carter, left them 28-3 in front.

In all they scored seven tries with Hosea Gear and Mils Muliaina both crossing twice.

Henry noted a "rusty" Scotland, in their first Test since June, struggled to stay with his match-hardened team.

"We defended very well ... It's been the best it's been for some time," he said.

"Scotland played some good attacking football at times and put us under pressure. The way the guys handled that was very pleasing.

"We'd played big Tests against Australia and South Africa, I wondered if the edge was still there - it was."

Scotland coach Andy Robinson took the heavy loss baldy.

"We've really let the nation down today and it's about how we come back from that," Robinson said.

"We dropped off tackles in the first 20 minutes and the game was over.

"It was a harsh lesson for us and the reality of what international rugby union is all about."

Scotland scored first, with Australia-born fly-half Dan Parks kicking a 40 metre penalty.

From a scrum, quick ball was provided to scrum-half Jimmy Cowan, who found Williams before the centre's superb pass out of the back of the hand released Gear for a ninth minute try under the posts.

Carter converted and minutes later went over for a try himself.

From turnover ball, right wing Isaia Toeava burst clear and Carter then collected a poor pass off his toes before scoring.

New Zealand's third try followed soon afterwards, created by a swift exchange between blindside flanker Liam Messam and Carter before the fly-half sent in Muliaina.

Then Gear's second try, with Carter again the instigator, saw the wing evade three feeble attempted tackles.

Scotland's problems were compounded when scrum-half and captain Mike Blair was injured, allowing replacement Greig Laidlaw - the nephew of former Scotland No 9 Roy - to make his debut.

Early in the second half, New Zealand had a fifth try when another Williams pass out of the back of the hand led to Muliaina going over.

Carter made no mistake with the tough conversion but, after a match haul of 15 points, he was withdrawn with 30 minutes left.

But the All Blacks were not done, with outside centre Conrad Smith and replacement scrum-half Andy Ellis adding two more tries.

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