All Blacks Player Ratings v Italy
The All Blacks have capped their 2018 season with an emphatic 10-try 66-3 victory over the Azzurri in Rome. Here’s how they rated individually:
1. Ofa Tuungafasi – 6.5
A little patchy with ball in hand but did some fine work in the scrum, forcing his opposite Simone Ferrari to concede a penalty and applying pressure every time the sides packed down.
2. Dane Coles – 8.5
Dane Coles was back to his attacking best against Italy. Made an immediate impact by sidestepping Italian wing Luca Sperandio and finding a pair of looping teammates to set up the opening try. Showed other impressive flashes as a carrier and was close to impeccable at lineout time.
3. Nepo Laulala – 6
Made eight tackles, second-most in the All Blacks pack. Helped prop up the scrum and was limited with ball in hand.
4. Patrick Tuipulotu – 7.5
Got through plenty of work in a busy 80-minute shift. Hands let him down a couple of times but otherwise an incredibly reliable metre maker. Finished with 53 metres, five defenders beaten and a try assist but also conceded three turnovers.
5. Scott Barrett – 6.5
A relatively quiet shift from a player that has made a big impact of late. Made six tackles and was handy in the lineout. Didn’t get much ball and was penalised early to surrender Italy’s sole three points.
6. Vaea Fifita – 9
Arguably the All Blacks’ most impactful forward. Devastating with ball in hand, athletic freak Fifita turned five carries into 60 metres, beating three defenders and making a line break. He also finished as the All Blacks’ top tackler, making 11 without a miss. An impressive performance and nice finish to the year for a player that has had a tough season.
7. Ardie Savea – 7
A typical pest at the breakdown. Counter rucking put pressure on the Italians and he managed to eventually snaffle a turnover. Less impact on attack in a short 47-minute shift.
8. Kieran Read – 8
Finished with eight tackles, missing on two occasions. Excellent in the lineout. Showed great skill and hands in lead up to two tries, notched one try assist to Ngani Laumape and put Patrick Tuipulotu through a hole to set up one of Damian McKenzie’s tries. Lowlight was getting manhandled by Italian flanker Jake Polledri.
9. TJ Perenara – 8
Great support running to pick up a try, had another taken away after a forward pass. Delivered lightning quick service all night and made his tackles.
10. Beauden Barrett – 9
Beauden Barrett was excellent in pulling the strings for the All Blacks against Italy. Scored a try after picking off an overthrown lineout near halfway and taking it to the house. Set up two more with a perfectly weighted grubber for Damian McKenzie and a cross-field kick for brother Jordie. Loses marks for a few errant passes. Accurate off the tee.
11. Waisake Naholo – 7
Didn’t see much ball come his way but made the most of his opportunities and went looking for work. Was largely untested defensively.
12. Ngani Laumape – 7.5
An impressive all-around performance from the power-packed midfielder. Scored a try after great hands from Kieran Read and put in a grubber to set up McKenzie’s third.
13. Anton Lienert Brown – 8
Reliable with ball in hand, often able to straighten play and make metres. Finished with 83 run metres and a clean break, and kept the ball alive constantly with a game-high five offloads. Made all five of his tackle attempts.
14. Jordie Barrett – 9
Might be in for a few more shifts on the wing after bagging four tries. Showed off an array of skills in doing so. Most impressive may have been claiming his brother’s cross-field kick on the stroke of halftime. Finished with a game-high 138 run metres – Italy notchd 161 as a team -with six defenders beaten and three line breaks. Also set up and try and offloaded three times.
15. Damian McKenzie – 9
McKenzie flourished and helped open up the game from fullback. Outrun only by Barrett with 136 metres, McKenzie scored three tries and made two line breaks with five defenders beaten. Simply made things happen for the All Blacks. A good note to end his campaign.
Key Reserves:
Brodie Retallick wasted no time in breaking the line after replacing Scott Barrett. Young loose forward Dalton Papalii came on and made an impact defensively, making five tackles and winning two turnovers.
Richie Mo’unga threatened the Italian line and showed flashes of some fine tactical kicking as well as setting up a try.
The highlight from the bench came from hooker Nathan Harris, who made a line break before grubbering ahead to Jordie Barrett who claimed his fourth try of the evening.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments