Otago Daily Times sports editor Hayden Meikle blogs live as the All Blacks play Fiji in the last test match at Carisbrook.
9.17pm: OK folks, I am done for the night.
Apparently that is the lowest number of points the All Blacks have ever scored against Fiji.
Everyone is pushing the "it's a start" line, and fair enough I guess. The big prize is at Eden Park in October, not at Carisbrook in July.
But there will certainly need to be a lot of improvement before the Tri-Nations.
Too many mistakes, particularly around ballhandling.
Slade looked good. Thomson had a good game.
Bit of a dud test, really.
9.14pm: TRY!
More junk points, but they'll take it.
Guildford breaks down the left and flicks in (forward) to Mils to score.
Carter conversion.
It's 60-14......and that's game over.
9.11pm: I'm not given this one the upper-case treatment.
Penalty try to All Blacks.
They had the dominant scrum but no-one can understand why Dickinson felt the need to blow a penalty try so quickly.
Carter conversion. Cheap points, and the All Blacks are up 53-14.
9.10pm: Go clock, go.
9.03pm: TRY!
All Blacks rattle on anoth . . . er, no.
The Fijians benefit from a Conrad Smith missed tackle and a rather lucky bounce and score their second try.
With the conversion, it's 46-14. And 14-14 in the second half.
Top effort, Flying Fijians.
9.02pm: TRY!
Nice work by Weepu and that man Smith.
Weepu try, followed by Carter conversion.
All Blacks up 46-7. Big score but not a great performance.
9pm: 7-7 in second half, wow.
Email me, people! bigmeiks@gmail.com
8.57pm: More changes for the All Blacks.
Corey "Not Straight" Flynn on for Hore.
Afoa for Crockett.
8.54pm: TRY!
Weepu slides in a grubber.
Nonu and Smith both chase, Smith gets the try.
All Blacks will rattle on four more quick tries now, you watch.
Slade converts.
All Blacks lead 39-7.
Slade replaced by Carter. Pretty good 60 minutes from Slade.
8.50pm: Test petering out, really.
Shame. Carisbrook deserved better.
8.44pm: TRY!
And it's the Fijians. Turnover ball, and a rampaging forward screams forward 40m.
Inside ball and the wee halfback scores.
The try is converted and just quietly, it's only 32-7 to the All Blacks. My 67-10 is looking a fair estimate.
Weepu and Whitelock on.
8.41pm: Sivivatu off.
And Otago's Ben Smith on!
Second cap for Smith. Giz a try, Ben.
8.39pm: All Blacks win a turnover and charge downfield.
Good burst from the comeback kid, Ali Williams. But ball gets lost.
Nisbo just said Fiji has now had more territory and possession than the All Blacks.
8.37pm: I've got a friend, a league fan, who argues rugby should follow suit and abolish scrums.
I'm trying to argue in the negative but it's getting harder and harder.
8.35pm: An All Black kick was charged down just in front of their line, but the Fijians couldn't capitalise.
They are trying, the Fiji lads. Just don't have the structures needed to break down the All Blacks.
8.30pm: Fortified by some unbelievably good venison casserole and some Diet Coke, I am back.
Changes to the All Blacks? Ah, hmm, doesn't look like it.
Nice run by a Fijian. Then a couple of penalties to the islanders.
They decline attempts at goal, which is great to see.
8.17pm: TRY!
Easy yards for the All Blacks, and hometown boy Adam Thomson burrows over.
But wait - where's his "You can't see me" hand wave in front of the face celebration?
Outrageous. John Cena will not be happy.
Another nice kick from Slade. All Blacks lead 32-0.
And that's halftime.
All Blacks took a while to warm up but are now finding the going easy.
Second half will probably be one-way traffic.
Back soon.
8.13pm: TRY!.
The All Blacks spread the ball from side to side, and Andrew Hore gets the try.
Nice boost for Hore, who had a terrible season.
His Maniototo side plays Lawrence in the Otago Country final in Ranfurly tomorrow.
And Hore will be unveiled as a Highlander any day.
Slade conversion. 25-0 with halftime approaching.
8.12pm: Grant Fox is a very good analyst.
But I'm getting just a little bit tired of his obsession with predicting which way the All Blacks will attack off every single set piece.
8.10pm: Under-rated part of Colin Slade's game:
The guy has a heck of a pass.
His pass is better than his halfback's. Weird.
8.05pm: Good little passage for the Fijians. But Bai misses a penalty attempt.
As an aside, do you realise the Fiji rugby team is now officially promoting itself as The Flying Fijians?
So they've taken that classic cliche and used it as a marketing tool. Clever.
Look out for the Unpredictable French, the Boring English and the Cheating F&^*&% Springboks.
8pm: TRY!
Turnover, followed by a kick.
Then Slade gets the ball, pops in a left-footed kick, the ball bounces off the post and he scoops up to score.
Slade converts his own try.
So it's 18-0 after 25 minutes.
Colin Slade has 13 points and no broken jaws. Keep it up.
7.58pm: Big scrum from All Blacks leads to a penalty.
Some weedy-looking kid from the crowd lines it up . . . no, wait, it's Colin Slade.
He makes the kick.
All Blacks up 11-0 after 20 minutes.
7.56pm: Mistakes.
Stu Dickinson.
Scrums.
Half a crowd.
Cold.
Zzzzzzzzzz.
7.50pm: So we're 14 minutes in and it's still 8-0.
Fiji just had a wee crack but didn't really go anywhere.
Not sure what the official crowd is, but a friend just texted from the Brook. Says there is heaps of room on the terrace, Railway Stand is only a quarter full, and two sections of Main Stand are completely empty.
7.47pm: A Fijian scores! A Fijian scores!
The problem for Fiji is that the try goes to Sitiveni Sivivatu.
Simple ball retention from the All Blacks, nice pass from Slade to Mils, then Sivivatu in at the corner.
Slade just misses the conversion.
All Blacks 8, Fiji 0.
7.45pm: A flurry of penalties, surprise surprise.
All Black scrum completely dominant.
7.43pm: Untidy stuff from All Blacks.
At this rate, they will only win 48-0.
7.39pm: Yikes, Nonu has a nasty gash above the eye.
Quiet start. Early scrum.
All Blacks penalty. Slade has a crack. Listen....it's a goal.
All Blacks lead 3-0.
7.38pm: Remember to email me (bigmeiks@gmail.com) with comments or questions.
7.34pm: Haka time.
The All Blacks break into Ka Mate at the same time as the Fijians do their war dance.
Bit disappointed. Thought they might have done Kapa o Pango, at the ground where it was first revealed in 2005.
Game time.
7.33pm: Op Shop singer handles NZ anthems.
Nice, simple performance.
And yes, for the pedants, the All Blacks are singing. Badly, probably, but they are singing.
7.32pm: Big Lapi Mariner belts out the Fijian anthem.
Steam coming from the breath, so the temperature has obviously dipped sharply.
7.30pm: Last. Final. Climactic. Closing. Conclusive. Crowning. Curtains. Definitive. Ending. Eventual. Supreme. Swan song. Ultimate.
Yes, I've used an online thesaurus. But all words fit now. This IS the last test at Carisbrook. Strange and sad.
7.25pm: And now for some in-depth analysis of the Fijians . . .
Deacon Manu - former Chiefs prop and, for memory, an Alll Black triallist a few years ago.
Campese Ma'afu - prop with the coolest first name in rugby.
Seremaia Bai - first five who used to play for Southland.
Seko Kalou - lock who used to play for Otago and North Otago.
Viliame Veikoso - reserve hooker who used to play for North Otago.
And, er, that's it.
7.20pm: In case you missed it, the All Black team is:
15. Mils - getting older but still No 1
14. Guildford - needs to prove he's more than just fast
13. Smith - quietly classy and efficient
12. Nonu - watch him get back into form
11. Sivivatu - last chance saloon
10. Slade - watch the jaw!
9. Jimmy - chances of getting in a scrap: 96%
8. Messam - never convinced me
7. Richie - did I mention he was born in Oamaru?
6. Thommo - Mr X factor
5. Williams - comical Ali is back
4. Hoeata - the big Highlanders success story
3. Franks, B - solid as a rock
2. Hore - the pride of the Maniototo
1. Crockett - only test he will start this year
Bench: The guy who can't throw in straight, a forgettable prop, one of the Whitelocks, Kaino, Piri, Golden Boy, and the great Ben Smith who should be starting but I won't go on about it too much.
7.12pm: So any score predictions for this test?
We had a bit of a sweep in the office today. Most people were going for 80-odd to 0.
But I don't know. The All Blacks might be a little rusty, and it's not a full-strength team. Fiji can't beat the All Blacks - they're not Samoa, and the All Blacks ain't the Wobblies - but surely they'll grab a try.
I'm picking 67-10.
There you go: head straight to the TAB and throw the house on 115-0.
7.08pm: Stu Dickinson is the referee! Nooooooooo.
Couldn't they have got the blind woman who refereed the nude rugby?
7.06pm: TJ (oops, sorry, Sky is outlawing nicknames for the World Cup, so we'll call him Tony Johnson) has been handling the test buildup with three great Otago figures.
Laurie, Kees and Taine. They don't need last names down here.
There have been some nice images of Carisbrook/All Blacks through the years. And a little bit of footage of Christchurch, with this test designated as a fund-raiser for the earthquake appeal.
On the latter point: why is this game on a Friday night? It's clearly turned off a lot of punters. And it's not like Christchurch people would have found ti easy to get down here on a Friday.
We've just seen the dude from Op Shop. He's wearing a dead beaver on his head. Must be cold.
7.03pm: To get the evening rolling, nude rugby!
http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/rugby/170338/video-nude-rugby-dunedin
7pm: Evening all and welcome to Carisbro . . . er, welcome to my lounge.
Yes, I'm afraid the lure of a comfy chair and a big screen and the informative tones of Sumo and Kamo out-weighed the desire to get frozen at a half-full Carisbrook.
Like many of you, I said my goodbyes to Carisbrook as a test venue last year. I'll be there in a couple of weeks for the final, final game. That will be a more significant event.
The test kicks off in 35 minutes. Remember to email me (bigmeiks@gmail.com) with questions, comments, predictions and your memories of Carisbrook.
