All Blacks demolish Northland 73-0 and get pushed by Counties-Manukau in pre-Bledisloe hit-out.

Job done. Box ticked. The All Blacks warmed up for the opening Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney next week by notching more than a century against Northland and Counties-Manukau in Pukekohe on Friday night.

Other than his men coming through unscathed, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen will be pleased to see out-of-sorts wing Julian Savea get around 60 valuable minutes under his belt after largely sitting on the bench at the back end of the Hurricanes season.

Savea wasn't spectacular and still didn't appear at full throttle but he went looking for work, scored one try with an untouched 40 metre burst to the line; put in one nice touch-finding kick but also lost the ball in contact on one occasion.

Anthony Au-Yeung Julian Savea was back in black.

Whether that's enough to earn him a start on the left wing against the Wallabies next week remains to be seen.

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ONE NEWS Waisea Lawebuka sends the All Blacks winger tumbling to the Pukekohe turf.

"It was ideal preparation," Hansen said. "Some of these guys haven't played for four or five weeks so they badly needed it."

The match was a homecoming of sorts for All Blacks captain Kieran Read, who grew up in South Auckland and attended Rosehill College before shifting to Christchurch.

"We needed that hit-out to get air in the lungs and some heavy legs so it was good for us. It's a good feeling for us to have a full squad going into next week," Read said.

Anthony Au-Yeung/GETTY IMAGES Julian Savea in action against Wales.

"It's great to come down to Pukekohe. I spent many a Saturday coming down here and watching my heroes play so to see these guys get another chance is pretty awesome."

Read into it what you will, given Savea was the only Hurricane to see game time, but the All Blacks started with a backline of Aaron Smith, Aaron Cruden, Savea, Ryan Crotty, George Moala, Israel Dagg and Ben Smith.

Waisake Naholo, Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Lima Sopoaga, Damian McKenzie and Anton Lienert-Brown, in his first match for the All Blacks after being called in to replace Sonny Bill Williams, were all injected for the second half.

"It was unreal just being amongst those boys. Playing was a dream come true," Lienert-Brown said. "I've been having messages come at me left right and centre from the family but I haven't had time to message them back yet.

"I'm looking forward to what's ahead and hopefully taking my opportunities. At the start of the year my goal was to get regular starting time with the Chiefs so to get here is amazing. It just shows how quickly it can happen."

With Sam Cane and Ardie Savea rested, Matt Todd and Elliot Dixon shared the openside duties; Nathan Harris and Cody Taylor the same at hooker as Dane Coles continues to recover from his rib injury.

Moala's 62-minute stint at centre may mean he gets the nod over Malakai Fekitoa next week, or it could simply be the fact he needed game time after sitting on the sideline for the month since the Blues' campaign ended.

Northland, soundly beaten 24-5 by Counties in their half, were given a fair old hiding in their 40 minutes against the All Blacks.

Brodie Retallick, Jerome Kaino, Kieran Read, Harris, Cruden, Moala, Savea, Dagg, and Sam Whitelock all got on the score sheet with Todd bagging a double.

Cruden kicked six from seven, before handing the tee to Dagg, who slotted two from three in the 73-0 rout.

The second spell was a completely different story.

Counties openside Fotu Lokotui received the biggest cheer of the night from a healthy crowd when he crashed over and the locals savoured their side holding a 7-0 lead for the best part of 20 minutes.

A brace from Dagg; tries from Read, Naholo and Patrick Tuipulotu and five Sopoaga conversions blew the margin out to 35-7 but Counties can be more than satisfied with their efforts, particularly on defence.

The All Blacks will also get on the plane to Sydney on Sunday with bodies better prepared for the Wallabies challenge.

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