Six star turns: New Zealand v Georgia

Naholo has arrived

It took just 72 seconds for Waisake Naholo to make a splash on his Rugby World Cup debut. Following clean line out ball on the half way line, Naholo’s timing was perfect as Dan Carter put him into space. Showing scintillating speed, he beat the mid-field defence before pushing away the final defender to dot down for the quickest try of the tournament so far.

Georgia strike back

In a frenetic opening five minutes, Georgia struck back when a loose All Blacks carry was scooped up by Georgia and eventually towed through by fullback Beka Tsiklauri. Displaying some fancy football skills, the Georgian fullback chipped the ball again as Dan Carter and Waisake Naholo made a despairing dive to shut the play down. With only Brodie Retallick in pursuit, Tsiklauri got the bounce to scoot in for a great opportunist try.

Forwards playing as backs

The All Blacks flexed their ball-playing muscle with their fourth try in the 21st minute. With forwards lined up in the back line, Kieran Read showed the vision of a first-five to skip the ball long to captain Richie McCaw. Playing like a seasoned second-five, McCaw stepped inside to draw three defenders and slip a pass to Dane Coles to finish the movement in the corner like a flying wing.

Georgian defence

Although the All Blacks crossed for seven tries, the Georgian defence was strong throughout and forced the All Blacks into making handling errors and disrupted set-plays. Led by giant captain Mamuka Gorgodze, Georgia were ferocious in the contact area and up fast on the All Blacks back line. One of the tackles which typified the Georgia defence was when first-five Lasha Malaguradze rushed off the line to put a big shot on Ben Smith and stop a certain over-lap try out wide.

Captain courageous

When Richie McCaw left the field in the 60th minute, the Millennium Stadium crowd rose to its feet and clapped the All Blacks legend to the side line. Even though the All Blacks hadn’t dominated like many would have expected them to do, the crowd realised the inspirational performance of the All Blacks skipper. Prominent with ball in hand, constantly threatening at the break down and a lion on defence, McCaw showed once again why he is one of the greats of the world game.

A hat trick for Savea

Blockbusting wing Julian Savea blazed to the top of the world cup try-scoring charts with three tries to take his overall tournament tally to five. In a worrying sign for opposition defensive coaches, it’s safe to say that Savea has found his try-scoring touch after a slow start to 2015 by his prolific standards. While his finishing was sound, the ‘Bus’ also went looking for work throughout and will be looking to add to his tally as the tournament approaches the knockout stages.