All Blacks crush Sharks 54-0 in eight-try blitz

The All Blacks have thumped the Sharks 54-0 in Durban, overcoming wet conditions to score eight tries and make it two wins from two games on their tour of South Africa.The Sharks dominated possession and territory in the early stages of the game but it was the All Blacks who scored first in atrocious conditions in Durban with wing Fehi Fineanganofo diving over in the right corner for his first try for the national side.Ruben Love hit the upright with the conversion but it bounced over to give the All Blacks a 7-0 lead after 20 minutes.The tourists thought they had scored again with Damian McKenzie latching on to a Quinn Tupaea chip to slide over, but TMO replays showed he had lost the ball just before the line.McKenzie wasn't to be denied though and scored soon after, sliding over in the right hand corner like Fineanganofo to help put the All Blacks ahead 14-0 going into halftime. McKenzie went off not long after with an injury, and was replaced by Emoni Narawa.Damian McKenzie scores in wet conditions in Durban.Ron Gaunt/www.photosport.nzThe All Blacks thought they had struck first in the second half when hooker Asafo Aumua barged his way over from close range, but the try was disallowed by the TMO who couldn't see the ball clearly grounded over the line.However, the tourists would score a couple of phases later with left wing Caleb Clarke dotting down after an easy run to the line following an overlap. Love nailed the sideline conversion to increase the All Blacks lead to 21-0.Fineanganofo then grabbed his second try of the match after some good play from Love and Clarke and Love continued his perfect record off the kicking tee to put the All Blacks ahead 28-0 with 25 minutes to go.Fehi Fineanganofo scores a try for the All Blacks.Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePixHooker Bradley Slater and prop Siale Lauaki came off the bench to make their All Blacks debuts, as the visitors replaced their entire front row, before midfielder Jordie Barrett scored a great team try where the All Blacks handling skills in the wet were on display.Love kicked the extras to give the All Blacks a 35-0 lead and then there was a roar from the crowd as former All Blacks centurion Ma'a Nonu came on for the Sharks as a replacement at 44 years old.The All Blacks were starting to run rampant and halfback Kyle Preston was the next to score after another great piece of interplay between the New Zealand backs, which was sparked by a break from Quinn Tupaea..Love kicked his sixth straight conversion to put the All Blacks ahead 42-0 and it wasn't long before the All Blacks had their seventh try, with replacement back Timoci Tavatavanawai scoring in the left corner with 10 minutes remaining to extend their lead to 47-0. Love missed the sideline conversion this time to spoil his perfect record, but it was still an impressive night with the boot for the first-five.Ruben Love kicked well against the Sharks.Ron Gaunt/www.photosport.nzLock Sam Darry got his name on the scoreboard with the All Blacks eighth try of the game, using his long arms to reach out and slam the ball down over the tryline and help the tourists push out to a 54-0 lead with five minutes to go and that's how the score would remain, as the All Blacks made it two wins from two games on their tour of South Africa.'Awesome steps forward' - captainIt was an "awesome game to be a part of," captain Luke Jacobson said in a sideline interview afterwards."I think we broke them down well in the first half and we got the fruits of that in the second half and we came away with a good win."Against the Stormers (the first game) we weren't where we wanted to be with our set piece around our maul and our scrum, we took awesome steps forward there this week."Out there in these wet conditions it's about skill execution and probably didn't start that well there but we started executing really well and we ended up getting points from it."It's about trusting your skill sets, trusting your mate, being patient and not being too eager."The All Blacks next play the Bulls in Pretoria on Sunday morning (NZT).Review all the action in our live blog above