Arizona Tribune - All Blacks need to improve says coach after opening win against Stormers

The teams were deadlocked at 14-14 before wing Rieko Ioane scored an opportunist try in the 68th minute, followed in quick succession by tries by fellow wing Leroy Carter, fullback Josh Moorby and replacement prop Asafo Aumua.

The tourists will play two more matches against local franchises before the first of four Tests against the world champion Springboks in Johannesburg on August 22.

"We know we need to be better – and we will be," said Rennie.

He said the All Blacks conceded too many penalties. They also had two yellow cards against them and were down to 13 players midway through the first half.

But Rennie said the players showed character in the way they responded.

"When we had the ball we were really dangerous," said Rennie. "We knew the Stormers would bring a lot of line speed and the dewy conditions made things difficult at times. We weren't quite clinical enough.

"We expected a lot of aerial attacks and we probably didn't deal with that as well as we wanted.

"We felt if we could hang on to the ball we could eventually find space and beat them and we were very clinical late in the game."

- 'Build depth' -

Neither team was at full strength for a match watched by 47,130 spectators.

The Stormers were without nine players who are members of the Springbok squad for the Test series, while Rennie gave opportunities to many of the fringe players in his 44-man squad.

The All Blacks included only six of the 23-man match-day squad selected for New Zealand's most recent Test, a 40-21 win against Ireland in Auckland on July 18.

Lauaki and flyhalf Josh Jacomb both made All Blacks debuts off the bench.

Rennie said the tour was an ideal opportunity to build depth in the All Blacks ranks.

"(Springbok coach) Rassie (Erasmus) has been doing it for eight years. We're a couple of months into it but we've brought over a good squad," said Rennie.

"Not a lot of the guys who played tonight (will) have big minutes in the Test series but we got some good footy, some tough footy into them tonight. They'll be better for that."

Rennie said there would be multiple changes for the team that plays the Sharks in Durban on Tuesday.

"Tours like this are great for us to build depth. Heading into a World Cup next year we'll know a lot more about the players we've got here."

Scorers:

Stormers: Tries: Deon Fourie, Seabelo Senatla, penalty try. Conversions: Yaqeen Ahmed (2).

All Blacks: Tries: Samisoni Taukei’aho, Simon Parker, Rieko Ioane, Leroy Carter, Josh Moorby, Asafo Aumua.Conversions: Beauden Barrett (3), Josh Jacomb (1)

Y.Baker--AT