Notebook

All Blacks to fine tune performance

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Posted: Thursday October 14, 1999 03:36 PM

"We're going to start again," said Hart after the win, and he went on to say "we have no illusions of where we are now." AP

LONDON (AP) -- New Zealand coach John Hart says his team's awesome performance against Italy will not go to the players' heads and that they'll get back to the training ground for some fine-tuning.

"We're going to start again," Hart said. "We have no illusions of where we are now. We will have a couple of days' break in France, but it will be a fitness-based break, and there won't be too many rugby balls around."

The All Blacks, fielding a team of mostly reserves, scored 14 tries to chalk up a 101-3 victory against the Italians, and now head for a break on the French Riviera, in Cannes.

But the players said they haven't won anything yet.

"I don't know if we can win it," said Ian Jones, singled out for special praise by Hart after a tenacious performance. "But if our work ethic is good, we've got as good a chance as anyone."

They also showed versatility, with the giant Jonah Lomu coming in off the wing toward the end of the match to fill in for captain Taine Randell as number eight.

But opposition defenses needn't rejoice since Lomu, now the all-time top try scorer at World Cups, will revert back to the wing for his next game.

Another record breaker was fullback Jeff Wilson, who became New Zealand's leading Test try scorer, beating John Kirwan's record of 35 with three tries to take his total to 37.

"People kept reminding me about the record, but I knew that if I was in the right place at the right time that I'd get it," Wilson said. "To be mentioned in the same breath as JK is a great honor."

"I knew when I got the ball that I was going to score, and that it would be the record," he said, admitting that he reveled in the huge spaces conceded by the overwhelmed Italians.

Wilson said that although there would be a lot of fitness work in France, the players would thrive from some leisure time.

"The coach is sure to give us some free time. He'd be crazy if he didn't."

Third, may not be so bad

Because the 20 teams are split into five groups of four, the organizers devised a system of playoffs to decide who reaches the last eight along with the five group winners.

The five runners up go into a series of playoffs but, because that also is an odd number, the organizers decided to let the best third-place finisher go into the playoffs too.

It's possible after the last series of group games, which finish on Saturday, that at least four third place teams could be tied for points and then it goes down point scored.

If any teams are also tied on points scored, it does down to tries scored and, after that, dividing points scored by points conceded.

Good luck Cardiff

His wife gave birth to their son while he was in Wales and he decided to name the boy "Cardiff".

"My wife, Leitutasi, gave birth back in Auckland and I was already away with the Samoan squad. I did not get chance to see my son until after the tournament," Vaega told the Western Mail.

"We did not name our son until I returned home and we called him Cardiff."

It could have been worse. After Thursday's 38-31 victory over the Welsh his next offspring could be called Millennium.

 

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