New Zealand's Tim Mikkelson has expressed his joy after the All Blacks got their Commonwealth Games off to an emphatic start at Ibrox this morning.

The reigning World Series, World Cup and Commonwealth champions hammered Canada 39-0 in the opening match of the day to set an early marker for their gold-medal rivals.

Mikkelson, who scored one try in the rout, revealed that they had spoken about making a quick start all week and were happy to have fulfilled their first goal.

"We talked about it all week. We wanted to start well and we did that by scoring a couple of early tries in the first half. So overall it was pleasing," he told Sports Mole.

"We're the first game of the day, we knew it was going to be tough. We've had to get up early. We've been talking about it all week like I said and we just wanted to start well and get our tournament underway."

New Zealand, who have never lost a match at the Commonwealth Games, will face hosts Scotland and Barbados later today.