'Loves a try and a meat pie' - Dane Coles scores record four tries against Fiji

Dane Coles put on the kind of try-scoring masterclass a winger would be proud of against Fiji in Dunedin tonight, as he ran over four times in less than half an hour.

It was the first time an All Black forward had ever scored four tries in a Test match in the team's 118-year history.

Coles made an instant impact coming off the bench for Codie Taylor in the second half, taking advantage as Fiji struggled to deal with the All Blacks' lineout maul.

Coles made them pay, scoring a quickfire hat-trick off the back of the maul, before he added a fourth in the dying minutes pouncing upon a loose ball on the try line.

Despite his record-breaking performance, Coles played down his try-scoring clinic after the game.

"I was just hanging on at the back," Coles laughed.

"We took a little bit of control back. Sammy Whitelock came on and got some mauls [going], I just sat on the back and took a few tries."

The impact was just what the All Blacks needed, after Fiji had reduced the gap to just eight points early in the second half.

All Blacks captain Aaron Smith joked Coles would "probably get a bit of stick about it".

"He doesn't like the limelight but he always loves getting a try and a meat pie," Smith laughed.

"He did really well tonight and to get that fourth one was all down to hustle and effort so good on him."

Likewise, coach Ian Foster joked it was lucky he didn't bring Coles on any earlier otherwise he might have scored a fifth.

"Four tries is not bad is it?" Foster said.

"Certainly the impact is something that we want - to be able to lift the tempo of the game when they come on and the only way to do that is through accuracy. We were able to get the game up tempo because we got more accurate as the game wore on."

Coles was quick to move on from his try-scoring efforts, believing there was plenty of work for the All Blacks to do ahead of next weekend's Test, especially in the breakdown.

"We've just got to put ourselves in a dark place and smash them over the ball because they were winning the punch there. Big work-on for us next week."