All Blacks count cost of Fiji's Little charity

New Zealand 68 - 18 Fiji

The All Black management are assessing their walking wounded before announcing their squad today for the Tri-Nations series.

The most serious injuries from Saturday's 68-18 win over Fiji in Wellington were to the full-back Leon MacDonald and centre Tana Umaga.

MacDonald suffered a deep gash to this forehead and suspected concussion after a clash of heads with the Fijian flanker Kole Sewabu and more tests will be conducted today before his involvement in the early stages of the Tri-Nations can be determined.

Meanwhile Umaga aggravated a troublesome knee injury, lasting only 25 minutes into Saturday's match.

Also injured were the No8 Taine Randell, who is suffering from a calf strain, and the fly-half Andrew Mehrtens, himself a replacement for MacDonald, who suffered a broken nose following a high and late tackle from his opposite number Nicky Little in the 57th minute.

Yesterday Little, who was playing his 40th match for Fiji, received a three-game ban for the tackle.

After the match a furious All Black coach John Mitchell criticised the physical Fijians' attitude, saying that headshots and offsides were not legitimate parts of the game.

"The game has quite clear definitions and these things should be dealt with accordingly," he said.

The All Blacks led 32-6 at half-time, having scored five tries to none.

Grabbing another six touchdowns, to two by Fiji, in the second period, the home side impressed with their crisp handling, ball retention and concentration which made light of the testing conditions.

Gaining early dominance in the lineouts, through a peerless display from Simon Maling, and the scrums by way of a totally committed pack, the All Blacks secured first-half tries by Christian Cullen, Doug Howlett, Kees Meeuws (with two) and Norm Maxwell.

The match saw Cullen become New Zealand's top Test try scorer, going past Jeff Wilson's record of 44. Cullen, who scored three of the All Blacks' 11 tries, finished the night with 46.

Maxwell snared two and MacDonald, Aaron Mauger and Scott Robertson also got on the board.

The props Meeuws and Joe McDonell were abrasive with ball in hand, the debutant openside flanker Sam Harding was omnipresent and Randell, until he left the field, was in strong form.

Mitchell will name a squad of 26 players today for the Tri-Nations tournament. Their first match is against Australia in Christchurch on July 13, followed by South Africa in Wellington on July 20. -

New Zealand: Cullen; Howlett, Umaga (MacDonald, 20; Mehrtens, 56; Marshall, 64), Lomu, Gibson; Mauger, Kelleher; Meeuws, Willis, McDonnell, Maxwell, Maling, Harding, Thorne, Randell (Robertson, 52).

Fiji: Uluinayau; Ligairi, Satala, Delasau, Rabeni; Little, Rauluni (Rabaka, 51); Cavubati (Biu, 74), Smith (Rasila, 40), Nyholt (Mocelutu, 56), Koyamaibole, Raiwalui, Tawake, Sewabu, Doviverata.

Referee: S Young (Australia).

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