Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

All Blacks survive physical Italy scare after captain carded

Rieko Ioane of the All Blacks. Photo by Francesco Scaccianoce/Getty Images

The final Test of the All Blacks‘ season saw them face an Italian side on the rise in what would be as physical of a contest the Kiwis have faced in 2024.

ADVERTISEMENT

It was a scrappy contest in near-freezing conditions in Italy, but Scott Robertson’s side brought down the curtain on a mammoth 2024 campaign and two iconic All Blacks careers with a 29-11 win.

An untidy start from both sides saw possession swing back and forth with handling errors and lineout steals frustrating both coaching boxes.

Video Spacer

Video Spacer

A superb 50/22 from Martin Page-Relo put Italy in prime attacking position, and an Ardie Savea breakdown infringement offered Paolo Garbisi a chance at an early three-point lead.

New Zealand had the upper hand in the aerial battle, winning the early contests, but Italy were immense defensively, winning the physical battle and making a mess of New Zealand’s rucks, quickly dismissing any resemblance of momentum.

The All Blacks levelled the scoreboard through Beauden Barrett’s boot, but Garbisi had his side back in front within a minute after Rieko Ioane claimed the kickoff behind a forward pod, obstructing the incoming tacklers.

Down three, the All Blacks then lost their captain Scott Barrett to a yellow card. The lock was guilty of a croc-roll.

ADVERTISEMENT

Despite being down a man, the All Blacks looked more sound as the game’s second quarter began and some Cam Roigard magic split the Italian defence through the shadow of a maul and scored the first try of the game.

The All Blacks started to make breaks but the resilient Italian defence proved up to the task in broken play, with desperate tackles made on New Zealand’s fastest athletes.

With halftime closing in and back to their full complement, the All Blacks finally capitalised on one of their advances and who else but Will Jordan to spy the gap in the defence to claim his 38th Test try.

Penalties

13
Penalties Conceded
11
1
Yellow Cards
2
0
Red Cards
0

The seven points pushed the New Zealand lead to 17-6, perhaps a scoreline that flattered the visitors after a 100-tackle opening 40 minutes from the Italians, with 10 dominant tackles to boast.

ADVERTISEMENT

The arm wrestle continued in the second half, and New Zealand’s discipline again came under the microscope, with a referee’s warning dished out before Anton Lienert-Brown was yellow carded for ripping the ball after being instructed to release.

The Azzurri’s defence held strong after many All Blacks barrages, but the scrum continued to struggle and Simone Ferrari was handed a yellow card shortly after New Zealand had their 15th man back on the field.

Sam Cane departed the field and the international arena to a chorus of ovation from the Turin crowd, with many on their feet to farewell the former All Blacks captain and Test centurion.

It wasn’t pretty, but as the clock ticked into the 70th minute, the All Blacks managed to get the ball wide off the back of another strong scrum and eventually found the waiting hands of Mark Tele’a who touched down in the corner. Beauden Barrett made it four from four off the tee.

After 75 minutes of character from Italy, the hosts finally got the reward for their efforts with a flying try to Tommaso Menoncello, accompanied by a roar from the Turin faithful.

Just as it looked like the hosts would have the final say, Beauden Barrett received a scrappy clearance kick and spied some space down the sideline, running from just outside the Italian 22 for a try to sign, seal and deliver New Zealand’s 14th win of the season to the tune of 29-11.

The final whistle was blown and while it was a far cry from the 96-17 drubbing in last year’s World Cup, New Zealand did farewell Sam Cane and TJ Perenara with a hard-fought victory.

HSBC SVNS Perth takes place on 24-26 January at HBF Park. Plan your ultimate rugby weekend in Western Australia with the help of flexible travel packages including tickets and accommodation. Buy Now or Find Out More.  

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

7 Comments
U
Utiku Old Boy 16 days ago

Underwhelming AB performance. Much like their season. Watching the Boks and Ireland put in AB-like performances only show how far this AB team has to go. Selections and game plan still based on "not losing" - not innovation.

G
GL 16 days ago

The Boks played the weakest teams in Europe!!!


And Ireland lost to the ABs at home so not so impressive

S
SadersMan 17 days ago

"Survive"? "Scare?" A bit dramatic. ABs always going to win, just a matter of by how much.


The Azurri were up for it though. As expected. You can bet they were planning for this specific test for months. Let's not forget they were pipped by ENG, drew with FRA, & beat both SCO & WAL in the Six Nations in Feb/Mar this year.


A mess of a match, a good win, considering.

J
JW 17 days ago

Yeah they're away of it too. It was brought up in one of the Italian focused articles. They are performing now and trying to move out of that 'being in awe' type attitude.


Very easy to say we're good enough to put all our focus on wining this last big game of the year (this one) though, you also need to be consistent and still perform in the other games (slip up against Georgia) and not get ahead of yourself. Not think you're too good for teams like Argentina and Georgia just because theres a shift in attitude towards thinking 'were good enough to beat anybody now'. Hope they go forward from here but I think this performance is still only good enough to keep them off wooden spoon 6N position (keep them well away from the bottom mind you).

Load More Comments

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

H
Head high tackle 54 minutes ago
'Razor's conservatism is in danger of halting New Zealand's progress'

I really dont know what the problem is Nick. Cane was immense this year and no one below him demanded the job. TJ perhaps less so but he was always going to start the season at 9 anyway due to the thing they call experience. I think guys like Lakai will have learnt a lot from the likes of Cane and Ill garrantee TJ has helped the Roigard/Ratima/Hothem settle in to their roles much better than they would have had there been no experience around. At the start of 2024 these guys had 3 tests between them. Im glad TJ was around.

The biggest fail area from my pov is centre. Razors lack of desire to change what is clearly failing is a worry. Is he waiting for a full year of SR? Is he not sure? I dont know the answer of course but He fiddled where he shouldnt have and didnt touch the area he should have. WJ at 15 is an experiment. Its not a clear decision yet either. WJ is an amazing attacking player. He isnt an amazing kicker or an amazing decision maker.

The 10 position is being handled very badly too. Its Dmac but BB is constantly in there, Its BB but no 15 to back that up or its no one. GET RID of the centre pairing and get Love in at 15. The backs will function way better. All the players get their SR backs working far better than Razor has gotten, and with no dedicated backs coach in the ABs its a clear problem area.


Also this comparing SA with NZ when 1 side is retaining all their stars and the other side has had some major changes isnt a apples with apples comparison. Imagine comparing a F1 racing team where 1 team was 100% settled and the other was brand new....Just not a comparison worth doing as it proves nothing other than the blatently obvious.

14 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
'Razor's conservatism is in danger of halting New Zealand's progress'

Razor is compensating, and not just for the Foster era.


Thanks again for doing the ground work on some revealing data Nick.


This article misses some key points points that are essential to this debate though;


Razor is under far more pressure than Rassie to win

Rassie is a bolder selector than Razor, and far more likely to embrace risk under pressure than his counterpart from New Zealand.

It doesn't realise the difficulties of a country like South Africa, with no rugby season to speak of at the moment, to get full use out of overseas internationals

Neither world player of the year Pieter-Steph du Toit nor all-world second row Eben Etzebeth were automatic selections despite the undue influence they exert on games in which they play.

The last is that one coach is 7 years into his era, where the other is in his first, and is starting with a far worse blank slate than where upon South Africa's canvas could be layered onto after 2017.

The spread at the bottom end is nothing short of spectacular. Seventeen more South Africans than New Zealanders started between one and five games in 2024.

That said, I think the balance needs to be at least somewhere in the middle. I don't know how much that is going to be down to Razor's courage, and New Zealands appetite however.


Sadly I think it is going to continue and the problem is going to be masked by much better results next year, even forgotten with an undefeated season. Because even this article appears to misconstruing the..

known quantities

as being TJP and Sam Cane. In the context of what would need to change for the numbers above to be similar, it's players like Jordie Barrett, Beauden Barrett, Rieko Ioane, Sevu Reece, Ethan Blackadder, Codie Taylor, where the reality needs to be meet face on.


On Jordie Barrett at Lienster, I really hope he can be taught how to tackle with a hard shoulder like Henshaw and Ringrose have. You can see in these highlights he doesn't have the physical presence of those two, or even the ones behind him in NZ like ALB and AJ Lam. I can't really seem him making leaps in other facets if he's already making headlines now.

14 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING ‘She’s a bit of a freak’: 20-year-old leads New Zealand to Cape Town title ‘She’s a bit of a freak’: 20-year-old leads New Zealand to CPT title
Search