The haka is back — even if the All Blacks’ opening World Rugby Classic game failed to live up to the excitement of New Zealand’s famous pre-game war cry.

New Zealand eventually wore down a dogged France 17-0 on Monday night at North Field, National Sports Centre in an attritional match to set up a semi-final against Argentina tomorrow evening, 8.30pm kick-off.

The All Blacks replaced Australia for this year’s event, having been absent since 2011. And they will surely up their game now that the ring rust — their win was littered with handling errors — has been shed. For Chris Jack, the lock with 67 international caps to his name, the return of the team to Bermuda is a welcome one.

“It’s great for us, especially the old guys,” Jack said. “Most of us finished rugby a while ago and played at a really professional level, so to be able to come here and relax and enjoy it a bit more than normal is great.

“It’s really important for us as ex-players to come to Bermuda and enjoy each other’s company.”

The imposing 6ft 7in figure, on his first visit to the Island, was also delighted to give the Classic crowd a stirring rendition of the haka once again. “It still gets you excited for a game,” the 36-year-old said, “and lets you know you are ready to play.”

Andy Haden, the New Zealand coach, is glad his team’s Classic hiatus is over but believes that they cannot play any worse. “I suppose that’s as bad as we can play,” he said, “and we’ll need to pick up our game to be in with even a chance [against Argentina].

“We haven’t really seen much of them — just a few flashes here and there. Some teams have the ability to lift their game and they are a team that can.”

The early stages of the win over France were untidy at best and Jack admitted that it cannot have been pleasing on the eye.

“I think our problem was we might have been performing a little better in the bar last night than we did on the field! It was a bit rough — a lot of dropped ball from us, which was frustrating but the French played really well.

“It was a bit of a slow start — I think the crowd got a bit bored for a while — but once we took our time and relaxed we were OK. We just needed to work a bit harder and we got there.”

For Haden, who has led the All Blacks in Bermuda on multiple occasions, he was at least happy to be back among familiar surroundings.

“We missed a couple of tournaments but that’s behind us,” he said. “It’s on the bucket list for a lot of the guys. This is a great way to finish your career.”

Match report, page 21