Improved All Blacks dominate France in Wellington to win series
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson had called for better execution after the tight 31-27 win in the first test in Dunedin last weekend and his players delivered to sew up the series with next week's Hamilton clash to spare.
Cam Roigard, Ardie Savea, Codie Taylor and Tupou Vaa'i all crossed to give the hosts a 29-3 halftime lead before Will Jordan and Rieko Ioane added two more tries after the break.
Six Nations champions France, who travelled south without most of their first-choice players, never got going until the second half and had to settle for tries from Leo Barre and Irish-born Joshua Brennan, son of former Irish international Trevor, after the break.
"We wanted to bring fire in our defence and I thought we did that in most parts of the game," said captain Savea, whose 29th test five-pointer saw him overtake Richie McCaw as New Zealand's most prolific try-scoring forward. "Still, credit to the French, they never give up, they're always there. So I'm proud of our boys for sticking it in and just doing a good job tonight."
"Obviously, really disappointed with the score. We wanted to prove much more today," said France winger Emilien Gailleton.
"But we're going to recover and come back for next week. We want to finish our season with a good performance."
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