six All Black tries<\/a>.<\/p>\nIt had been a long journey back to the jersey for Aumua, which fits a lot better now than it would have in January.<\/p>\n
“I know I was eating quite a bit. I was a bit heavy heading into pre-season. But, happy to be back in decent, or good enough, nick to play the game.”<\/p>\n
The dynamic hooker said he ballooned in weight in the off-season before trimming back down for Super Rugby.<\/p>\n
“I lied to our nutritionist. I said I was 124kg, but I was actually 126kg. Now I’m 116kg. I was probably just eating too much.<\/p>\n
“I was actually eating good food, but just a lot. Probably double the portions I should have been. But, I’m back to eating properly now.”<\/p>\n
Aumua has been at his bulldozing best for the All Blacks in 2026, his damaging runs helping keep Ireland on the back foot following Taylor’s departure.<\/p>\n
His impact illustrated the ruthless nature the side is trying to play with.<\/p>\n
Despite being up 40-21 with the siren having sounded, Aumua said captain Ardie Savea’s message was to keep going.<\/p>\n
“His message was ‘We’re not going to wind down the clock. We’re going to play.’ It’s been a constant throughout the series as well. Just trying to keep the ball moving, keep it alive. Try not to give the opposition a rest.”<\/p>\n
That game plan has been an enjoyable one to execute, fellow front rower Ethan De Groot said.<\/p>\n
“He’s [Dave Rennie] allowing us to back skill and having a crack so yeah, I’m enjoying that side of the game.”<\/p>\n
De Groot joked that he had been looking to improve his on-field flair under the new regime.<\/p>\n
“It’s funny because Barnsy [assistant coach Neil Barnes] actually gave me s*** for having no skills so I’ve been working hard on trying to prove him wrong with a bit of razzle.”<\/p>\n
The powerhouse prop said the Irish brought plenty of intensity on Saturday night, despite the one-sided scoreline.<\/p>\n
“It was very physical. Some big ball carriers there so it’s cool to get some shoulders on.”<\/p>\n
De Groot said while it was a pleasing performance, there was still plenty of work to be done.<\/p>\n
“It was definitely a step in the right direction. I still feel like there’s some room for improvement. I still feel like we left a few out there, to be honest. It wasn’t always pretty, but we got there.”<\/p>\n
Having conceded early points against both France and Italy, it was the All Blacks that established dominance in the opening minutes at Eden Park.<\/p>\n
“We had a big emphasis on our start – the last two weeks, teams have scored on us, so pretty happy we didn’t let them in early.”<\/p>\n
Asked whether they would have to raise the standard ahead of the tour to South Africa, De Groot replied, “What do you think?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asafo Aumua not only had to battle a string of injuries to get back into the All Blacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-532764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}