Brown settles All Blacks' opening jitters

The stand-off Tony Brown ran in three tries as New Zealand eased to a 50-6 victory over Samoa here yesterday in the All Blacks' first rugby union international of the season.

Brown opened his side's scoring with a try in the third minute of play, added his second five minutes before the interval and his third midway through the second half as the All Blacks outscored Samoa by seven tries to nil.

He also added three penalties and three conversions to bolster an inconsistent New Zealand performance, hampered largely by driving rain.

"The ball was slippery and it was hard to do much with it but I felt we did our best with what we had," said the All Blacks' Byron Kelleher. "Samoa defended well and our forwards did their best to clear out possession but it was never easy out there."

New Zealand wanted a dominating forward performance but never fully stifled the passion of the Samoans, whose points came courtesy of two first-half penalties by the full-back Silao Laeaga.

The lock Troy Flavell scored his fifth try in nine Tests and provided contributing passes in two others but the All Black forwards struggled to get going at set pieces. Their scrum was strong but they risked too many long throws at line-outs.

"Overall we got a pass mark," said the All Blacks' assistant coach, Tony Gilbert. "The Samoans played very well and they really came at us. We defended quite well but we could have done more with our own ball. I think it was a reasonable start."

The Samoans attacked the All Black defence with an inadequate supply of possession. They defended with typical vigour but found themselves frequently outflanked.

"I'm very proud of my players," said the Samoa coach, John Boe. "They defended strongly and they tried their best with the ball they had. It was always going to be difficult for us but I thought we played with a lot of spirit."

The hooker Anton Oliver, captaining the All Blacks in a Test for the first time, also declared himself satisfied but described his side's performance as "scrappy".

The Samoa captain, Semo Setiti, felt his side had risen to the challenge but were beaten by a better team. "It was a good game from the All Blacks," he said. "We tried our best but they provided good defence and we couldn't get through them."

The Waikato flanker Marty Holah took the field as the All Black's only new cap and New Zealand's 999th rugby international. The Otago prop Carl Hayman became the 1,000th All Black when he took the field as a replacement midway through the second half.