Eddie Jones threatened to break into a smile when Faulua Makisi scored Japan’s second try after 15 minutes. It didn’t last but the former Wallabies coach will take some heart from his side’s fight as they managed to stop the All Blacks from wracking up a cricket score.

In the end the All Blacks, helped by two tries in the final three minutes, ran out 64-19 winners in Yokohama to start their end of year tour on a positive note.

But first-year All Blacks coach Scott Robertson will have left with a slightly sour taste in his mouth after a frustrating second half after Japan dominated possession and territory. Only a late double to Ruben Love on debut allowed the All Blacks to walk away smiling.

In an open and entertaining match, Jones’ Japanese fired plenty of shots at the All Blacks in attack but rarely could stop them when forced to defend.

Indeed, the Brave Blossoms made five clean breaks and beat 17 defenders but the 13 linebreaks they conceded allowed Robertson’s side to run in ten tries.

 

The reality is though eight of those five-pointers came inside the opening 45 minutes.

At that point, the All Blacks looked like they might run well into the eighties and possibly nudge a century.

But a “pretty scrappy” final 30 minutes, where the All Blacks were put under plenty of pressure by a relentless desire to attack and play up-tempo from the Brave Blossoms soon after Robertson took a leaf out of Rassie Erasmus’ book and unloaded his bench early in the second half, meant the All Blacks weren’t able to shift into cruise control. It was a familiar sight after struggling to score points in the final 30 minutes during The Rugby Championship.

Much like the All Blacks’ second half snooze against the Wallabies in Sydney, Robertson’s men spilt passes and bombed opportunities.

Mercurial fly-half Damian McKenzie was at the centre of it, dropping a simple pass in the second half to heap more pressure on his side, before making up for the fumble by a boot laces tackle and turnover when a try looked a certainty.

On the whole, however, McKenzie showed plenty of magic but the performance won’t silence his critics.

That is the element of expectation that the All Blacks carry when they take to the turf, particularly against the 14th ranked Brave Blossoms, but McKenzie and many of his teammates were never going to be able to increase their stock against Jones’ men.

Robertson lamented his side’s kicking options in the second half but tipped his hat at their defensive effort.

“When we did defend, we turned the ball over and gave the ball back to them with kicking,” said Robertson.

“When we had opportunities just simple little knock-ons, we gave the ball back too easily, but they learned how to defend, didn’t they? That’s one good thing.

“It was convincing. There were some great defensive sets, great passes, touches and s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁, and we had everything in the first half, and then we defended for a lot of the second half, a couple of debutants, so it had everything and a couple of tries in the end.”

After making wholesale changes for the Test from their last Bledisloe Cup win in Wellington, Robertson kept his cards close to him about who starred and didn’t.

But the former Crusaders coach said some players would start against England in London next weekend.

“I won’t give too many names,” he said. “A couple of these guys will be starting next week.

“It gives them valuable game time. A couple of guys came back from injury. I think it’s a really good balanced squad, but we’ve got a helluva group over in the UK waiting for us, but you’ll see a few faces out there.”

He added: “The guys have been in the group for a long while now and sometimes you’ve just got to give them a chance.”

 

Jones said the turning point of the game came when his side had a try overturned for a knock-on in the tackle that was picked up by Australian TMO Damon Murphy.

“When we got that disallowed try, you could visibly see our energy dropped, our attention to detail dropped, and then New Zealand took 29 points in that period,” he said.

“The good thing in second half in the second half is we showed plenty of spirit, plenty of character, and played some good rugby.

“We’re the only in the infancy of where we want to be at the moment but it’s disappointed.”

 

After Robertson named the heaviest front-row in All Black history many thought the visitors would blow away Jones’ pack at the scrum.

But with World Cup-winning All Blacks prop Owen Franks on Jones’ coaching staff, the duo will have been thrilled with their ability to hold the set-piece together well.

Indeed, All Blacks skipper Patrick Tuipulotu expressed his frustration at not being able to get much pay at the scrum while Asafo Aumua’s throwing troubles returned from the opening lineout.

“Our set-piece was good. Our scrum was good, we dropped off a bit in the second half, our lineout was good,” Jones said.

“We’ve got the ability to move the ball quickly, we’ve got to add a few things to it, but we will.”

Despite the heavy 45-point loss, Jones, who is attempting to change the way rugby is played by playing an extremely fast version of the game, said the Test would be a great learning experience for his rebuilding side.

“They’ve been really good, they really want to do it,” he said.

“We’ve got a team with 250 caps. Today’s a great experience for them. Learning how to just stay in the fight when it’s not going well to stay in the fight and just be there.”

While the All Blacks took a 43-12 lead into half time, early on Jones’ side were going shot-for-shot against the three-time World Cup champions.

After mistakes from Asafo Aumua and Cam Roigard, the Japanese struck first after some poor defense around the ruck allowed winger Jone Naikabula to stride through and score after five minutes.

The All Blacks hit back soon after through Mark Tele’a as the winger showed his strength in contact to somehow find the tryline.

His captain Tuipulotu then repeated the winger’s effort by outdoing his teammate by somehow scoring minutes later.

But Japan shocked the All Blacks as Makisi scored a simple try in the end.

The home side rose as one when second-rower Warner Deans appeared to have scored, but Murphy spotted a knock-on in the tackle more than 60 metres back.

Seconds later the All Blacks scored through recalled centre Billy Proctor and the visitors were up and running.

The All Blacks’ pack had a field day as Sam Cane, Samipeni Finau, Pasilio Tosi and Tamaiti Williams got on the score sheet to lead Robertson’s men to a 43-12 half-time lead.

After going close to scoring a couple of times in the first half, Roigard finally had his five-pointer minutes into the second half. That’s when the music died.

Passes were dropped, penalties given away and the All Blacks were forced to defend for several passages they didn’t expect. They largely stood up, before replacement prop Opeti Helu beat McKenzie with a step to score a stunning try.

Love, however, managed to ensure the All Blacks left Japan with a spring in their steps.

Sterner tests lay ahead, however.