When asked why he appeared so confident from the first whistle, Brown credited his teammates. \u201cThat\u2019s what playing with elite players does,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes your job so much easier, like the forward pack. Everyone across the field did such a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Stacey Jones knew Brown\u2019s importance to the team and backed him throughout the week in camp. He was thrilled with the output from his No 6. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a really good performance,\u201d Jones agreed. \u201c[We] kept it simple for him. His threat is his running game, though obviously he can take a bit of pressure off Kieran with the kicking game. The more he\u2019s involved, the better for this team, especially with our attack. Dylan played really well, not only in attack, but his defence was pretty good too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dylan Brown scored the match-winning try against Samoa. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s late try was the icing on the cake, as he hauled in a pinpoint Foran kick then showed strength and poise to find the try beside the goal posts.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually I\u2019m just the support guy in case the ball gets knocked back but I was just in the moment and it was sort of a jump in hope and I got the ball, so I was pretty happy with it,\u201d said Brown. \u201cThat post was in the way and that made it a little bit hard, but it\u2019s a bit of a rugby union try that one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Samoan crowd expressed doubt over the try, while a Toa Samoa petulant co-captain Jarome Luai impeded attempts to take the conversion, kicking the ball off the tee. But Brown was unequivocal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a bit of a white line there and I noticed it [the ball] on there,\u201d Brown confirmed. \u201cThe boys were asking me if I got the try and I [said] \u2018I think I did, yeah\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The match was an \u201cawesome contest\u201d and a huge physical challenge<\/a>, given the ball was in play for 63 minutes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was tough,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI\u2019m glad we could put on the show like that for everyone watching.\u201d<\/p>\n He was also in awe of the occasion \u2013 with the noise and the energy from the Samoan fans \u2013 who even managed to drown out the Kiwis pre-match routine. <\/p>\n \u201cWe couldn\u2019t even hear our own haka,\u201d Brown smiled. <\/p>\n He paid tribute to his forwards, who laid an impressive platform. <\/p>\n \u201cThere was a lot of talk about the Samoan team and the boys took that personally, which showed in the game,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a lot of passion and when we put that black jersey on, they go hard, they leave nothing out on their field, and that\u2019s what they [did on Sunday].\u201d<\/p>\n Brown was also impressed with 19-year-old centre Casey McLean, who flashed across for two tries. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s young but he plays well about his age,\u201d said Brown. \u201cEven just in the meetings leading up to the game, he showed his maturity and his knowledge of the game. He\u2019s been awesome. Last year he scored four tries [against Papua New Guinea]<\/a> so he\u2019s got six tries in two tests, which is unheard of.\u201d<\/p>\n The Kiwis have a few days off before reassembling next Monday, ahead of their round two clash with Tonga at Eden Park on November 2. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to have momentum going into the Tonga game,\u201d said Brown. \u201cWe can\u2019t wait.\u201d<\/p>\n Michael Burgess<\/a> has been a Sports Journalist for the New Zealand Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America\u2019s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When asked why he appeared so confident from the first whistle, Brown credited his teammates. \u201cThat\u2019s what playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[21693,69065,74,9092,6256,32565,60037,2550,69064,293,69063,702,807,685,19133,24691,13631,111,139,69,52591,5902,213,12825,10809,1361,8475,6736,18324,6923],"class_list":["post-92174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-achieved","tag-adamant","tag-after","tag-against","tag-brown","tag-display","tag-dylan","tag-even","tag-fiveeighth","tag-his","tag-insists","tag-it","tag-kiwis","tag-last","tag-looking","tag-motivation","tag-never","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-redemption","tag-samoa","tag-sports","tag-stunning","tag-sunday","tag-that","tag-thats","tag-was","tag-wasnt","tag-what"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92174","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=92174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}