Novice flyhalf Colin Slade scored a try among 19 points as New Zealand marked 50 days to the start of the Rugby World Cup with a lacklustre 60-14 win over Fiji on Friday night.

In only his second Test and in his first starting appearance for the All Blacks, Slade produced a competent 60-minute performance to enhance his chances of being chosen as backup to Daniel Carter at the World Cup in September and October.

New Zealand took three minutes to score - a penalty to Slade which were also his first points in Tests - and nine minutes to score the first of eight tries, the 28th in Test matches for Fiji-born winger Sitiveni Sivivatu.

The All Blacks led 32-0 at halftime but were outplayed in the second spell by the Fijiians who scored brilliant tries through scrumhalf Nemia Serelevu and winger Vereniki Goneva.

New Zealand's first Test performance of the season was riddled with lapses and showed the vast amount of improvement needed in four remaining Test matches - all in the Tri Nations tournament - before the opening World Cup match against Tonga on September 9.

"There's definitely some work to do but it's a start and there were some good things there," All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said.

"We may not have got all the detail dead right but the things we've worked on you can see are going to come and we've just got to put a bit of work in before we climb into next week I guess."

Coach Graham Henry agreed: "I think we were a bit tight initially but it's a start and no-one got injured which is really good.

"There's plenty to build on, every aspect of our game and we know what we have to work on."

New Zealand fielded a new-look combination, resting some senior players who took part in the Canterbury Crusaders' and Auckland Blues' lengthy Super Rugby campaigns.

Fiji had an even share of territory and possession after halftime and were rewarded with their best result in five encounters with New Zealand.

"Early on the All Blacks put us through our paces. We re-gathered in the second half and probably 25 or 30 minutes into that we were pretty happy with where we were going," Fiji captain Deacon Manu said.

"We were pretty happy with much of our performance but obviously the scoreline got away from us a little and that was very disappointing."

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