Second half dominance lead New Zealand to 52-11 win over France
Beauden Barrett contributed with 17 points
©PA
New Zealand 52-11 France, Eden Park
Scorecard
Beauden Barrett contributed with 17 points while Rieko Ioane scored a double as New Zealand came up with a dominating second-half performance to beat France 52-11 in the first Test at Eden Park.
The win has given New Zealand 1-0 lead in the three-game series with the other two games to be played in Wellington and Dunedin on 16th and 23rd June respectively.
New Zealand's last defeat at Eden Park came in 1994 when they were defeated by France but now have extended their unbeaten streak at the venue to 40 games.
All Blacks made a promising start to the game as they ran deep into France territory but unprecedented errors backfired on them as a pass from Ben Smith was intercepted by Remy Grosso in the 6th minute for an unconverted try.
Beauden led response from New Zealand with a 13th minute penalty goal but his efforts were cancelled out by a three-pointer from Morgan Parra at the end of the first quarter. Barrett helped the All Blacks level the scores when he took an offload from Anton Lienert-Brown to skid past the line in the 21st minute.
As the half time was approaching, Parra kicked a long-range penalty to give France an 8-11 advantage heading into the break.
The scores were levelled 11-11 once again with the boot of Barrett slotting another penalty kick but the game slipped away from the visitors in the final 30 minutes as Steve Hansen's men showed total dominance.
In the last 28 minutes, the World Champions slotted as many as seven tries that was kick-started by a yellow-card to Italy's Paul Gabrillagues. Codie Taylor (52'), Ben Smith (55'), Rieko Ioane (62' and 74'), Damian Mckenzie (63'), Ngani Laumape (66') and Ardie Savea (78') to complete a 52-11 victory for New Zealand.
