All Blacks shake off slow start to overcome Italy as Will Jordan makes history

The second round of the inaugural Nations Championship competition began at Hnry Stadium in Wellington on Saturday afternoon, where Dave Rennie’s All Blacks bounced back from a slow start to surge past Italy, 47-17.

Rennie’s side were far from perfect, and the Italian’s forced the All Blacks to work for their Nations Championship victory, but it’s the second-straight victory to kickstart a huge year in 2026.

The All Blacks now top the Nations Championship ladder after their two victories, prior to the rest of the round two fixtures.

It was a superb first half from Gonzalo Quesada’s men in Wellington, and they deserve all the credit, suffocating the All Blacks and threatening with ball in hand.

Benneton’s Tommaso Menoncello was a first-half standout, scoring the opening try and providing the visitors with an array of inspirational moments.

The second half, though, was a completely different ball game. The All Blacks added five tries in the second half, including Will Jordan surpassing Doug Howlett’s long-standing record of 49 tries for the All Blacks.

Shortly after, All Blacks winger Will Jordan fumbled a Jordie Barrett short ball. Italy shifted it to the right-hand side before Menoncello put a strong fend on Billy Proctor, breaking the All Blacks’ defensive line. The Italian second-five shifted it to Malik Faissal, before the winger returned the favour to draw in Damian McKenzie close to the line.

Menoncello, who had an impressive first half, dotted down ten meters in from touch for the opening five-pointer of the contest. Tommaso Allan converted to top off a blistering start by the visitors in Wellington.

It didn’t take the All Blacks long to hit back, with Barrett regaining the Ruben Love kickoff. French referee Luc Ramos penalised the Italian’s twice in a matter of minutes, which gifted the home side a lineout opportunity from five metres out.

Rennie’s All Blacks were pinged shortly after on the 22-meter line for offside, and to make matters worse, Allen made no mistake from in front, earning their second lead of the game.

Barrett picked up the ball in a counter-attacking opportunity down the left-hand touchline, putting in a subtle left-footed grubber kick for Leroy Carter. The Chiefs winger got to the ball first, gathering it in his stride, before throwing it inside to Jordan, who went in untouched.

Love was successful with the conversion from the same spot, giving the All Blacks a 14-10 lead with ten minutes to play in the first half.

The closing stages of the first 40 minutes were spent largely in Italy’s half, but the All Blacks couldn’t capitalise as Quesada’s side held strong on the defensive side of the ball.

HT: 14-10 to the All Blacks.

With a clear intent to put the first half behind them, the All Blacks stormed out of the blocks in the second 40 minutes.

Roigard was in support on Moorby’s right shoulder, taking the short pass in his stride to score under the posts.

Continuing his strong start in the second half, Moorby chased a Barrett kick off an Italian turnover and nearly went over for a maiden All Blacks try, but the home side were forced to recycle.

Roigard was denied his second, but de Groot powered over to give the All Blacks a sixteen-point lead in the 47th minute. Love’s conversion sailed wide of the posts, but it all started to fall into place for Rennie’s side.

It was that man again, super-sub Moorby, who created Jordan’s 49th All Blacks try, drawing in the final Italian defender as Jordan followed closely.

Italy went down to 14 men after Love’s conversion was successful, with referee Ramos ruling Lorenzo Cannone to have contacted Roigard with his head at a ruck prior to Jordan’s second.

The historic moment came in the 54th minute, as his long-time teammate, Barrett, looped a left-to-right skip pass down to the right wing. With only one defender in close vicinity, Jordan had the pace and the finishing ability to clinch the all-time try-scoring record for the All Blacks in Test matches.

Italy weren’t going to lie down, though, hitting back three minutes later, through replacement outside-back Leonardo Marin. The visitors carried powerfully through the middle, but the space was found down the right-hand touchline, where Marin wrapped around and dived in for their second try of the match.

For the remaining 20 minutes of the match, the contest lost most of its momentum. Love made his way to the bench for a second yellow card in two weeks, before it was deemed an Italy knock-on first.

In the final stages, the All Blacks crossed once more, through lock Tupou Vaa’i, after a number of phases close to Italy’s line.

Italy battled and caused the All Blacks problems at times during the Saturday afternoon encounter, but the home side stormed home to clinch a second straight victory under Dave Rennie.

FT: 47-17 to the All Blacks over Italy.