{"id":8766,"date":"2024-07-23T11:29:06","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T11:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/involvement.co.ke\/?p=8766"},"modified":"2024-07-23T11:29:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T11:29:06","slug":"all-blacks-annihilate-faltering-fijians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/2024\/07\/23\/all-blacks-annihilate-faltering-fijians\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks Annihilate Faltering Fijians"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ben Ayuko<\/em><\/p>\n

{image by PlanetRugby<\/em>}<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fresh off beating England in their first round of test matches, the New Zealand All Blacks set their sights on their Oceania “brothers<\/em>“, Fiji.<\/p>\n

As usual, the game started with each side issuing a war cry to their opponent. The roar of the Fijian ‘CIBI’ <\/em>was met with the defiance of the New Zealand ‘HAKA’<\/em>. 2 sets of warriors, on opposite sides, ready to leave it all on the line.<\/p>\n

No sooner had the game started than New Zealand soared over the try line for the first points of the game. Good play from Damien McKenzie<\/strong> saw him break through the Fijian defensive line and send the ball out wide. Caleb Clarke<\/strong> was on the end of the move, and he side stepped 2 defenders before touching down for New Zealand. McKenzie<\/em> converted his kick.<\/p>\n

Literally 5 minutes later, scrumhalf Cortez Ratima<\/strong> increased the advantage for the All Blacks. A strong carry from Centre, Anton Lienert-Brown<\/strong> set up a ruck just underneath the Fijian posts. Ratima<\/em> took advantage of a stumbling Fijian backline, picking the ball up straight from the ruck and sailing into the try box. Sadly, this would be his last meaningful contribution to the team as he went off after suffering a shoulder injury. McKenzie<\/em> converted his kick give his team a 14-0 lead 14minutes into the game.<\/p>\n

This seemed to spark Fiji into gear, seeing as how they enjoyed their best spell of the half for the next period of the game. Flyhalf Isaiah Armstrong-Ravula<\/strong> started looking to influencing the game using his kicking ability. He sent a kick to the air that was knocked on by a New Zealand defender who failed in his attempt to catch the ball. From the resultant scrum, Armstrong-Ravula<\/em> received the ball once more, this time sending a carefully aimed kick over to the blindside right into the arms of veteran Fijian winger, Semi Radradra<\/strong>. He climbed highest to catch the ball and then, skillfully tossed it back to his inside just before being taken out by the defender. The ball landed right into the arms of the fullback, Vilimoni Botitu<\/strong> who had a clear run into the New Zealand try box and touched down to get Fiji on the score board. A textbook exhibit of Fijian Rugby<\/em> at its best.<\/p>\n

This would prove to be the last cheerful moment for Fiji in this game as tries from Billy Proctor<\/strong>, Ardie Savea<\/strong>, Sevu Reece<\/strong>, Ethan de Groot <\/strong>and George Bell<\/strong> aided by McKenzie<\/em>‘s conversions for all but one, meant that Fiji didn’t stand a chance on the day. The spectators were treated to some special moments from their players, though. Something to give them inspiration and spark a response in the 2nd test match.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ben Ayuko {image by PlanetRugby}   Fresh off beating England in their first round of test matches, the New Zealand All Blacks set their sights on their Oceania “brothers“, Fiji. As usual, the game started with each side issuing a war cry to their opponent. The roar of the Fijian ‘CIBI’ was met with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8766\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invo.nyarango.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}