Dave Rennie on where he wants improvements from All Blacks after Italy win

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie was pleased with the improvements his side made against Italy following their win over France last week, but wants to “tidy up” a number of areas ahead of Ireland.

The home side battled hard in the first half for a 14-10 lead against a strong Italian front line defence, before breaking them open early in the second half for a flurry of tries.

Rennie said he expected the Italians to “bar up” across the field on defence and prove hard to crack, but he was unhappy with the finish that failed to really put Italy away in the final quarter.

“I think we need to be better. We need to be better against Ireland than we were tonight. But it was nice having an extra seven days to prepare for this one and get a little bit of repetition on,” Rennie said post-match.

“When we got that right, we were a real handful tonight, so I’m pleased with the strides we’re starting to make defensively. Tana’s put a lot of time into them, and it’s good to see a bit of a response.”

Once again the All Blacks conceded the first try early to go down 7-0, this time to centre Tommaso Menoncello, but that would be the only Italian try until the 56th minute. The visitors were restricted to just 17 points.

Rennie explained the new attacking system that has been a work in progress with the new combinations across the backline.

The perfection illustration of this attack came in the 42nd minute with the backs sweeping around, starting with first five Ruben Love, to switch back attack to the left side. Replacement winger Josh Moorby burst through a gap outside Will Jordan before finding Cam Roigard lurking on the inside.

“I thought you can see Mike Blair’s influence on our attack, and it’s very layered. When we get guys popping up and we’re trying to pick teams off, you know, we look really good,” he said.

“So I just thought some of our decision making, we just turned too much ball over too easily at key times, but I wasn’t too concerned at half-time at 14-10.

“We knew the Italians would bar up, as I said. We knew they’d fill the field, and we just needed to be patient and accurate.

“I thought it was a great response after half time, and you know, but disappointing that we didn’t kick on from there.”

From Roigard’s try the All Blacks kept the heat on. A blocked kick was regathered by Jordie Barrett who slammed it back downfield for Moorby to chase down. The debutant almost scored, and a few phases later Ethan de Groot crashed over.

After play broke down on the left, some improvisation by Jordie Barrett again found Moorby free down the touchline, who was able to put Will Jordan in for number two.

A quick tap by Ruben Love was the origin for Jordan’s record breaker, with Jordie Barrett delivering a sublime cutout pass perfectly into Jordan’s break basket on the right hand side.

The flurry of tries put the game out of reach of the Italians, but as the bench was emptied, the All Blacks lost their spark. Both Cam Roigard and Jordie Barrett departed in the 57th minute, who were making plays.

Assessing the All Blacks’ attack shape, Rennie said there were missed opportunities with a lack of accuracy costing the team. He highlighted there was too much drift and a lack of guise with ball carriers not squaring up effectively.

“I think we tried to pick them off at times, and it was actually on if we’d been accurate,” he said.

“But against the Irish, they’re a very smart defensive side, and so we’re going to have to force them to make decisions, so we just felt maybe in the first half hour, guys with the ball, you got to look like a ball carrier when we’re when we’re going short and going back ball. At times, we look like a distributor, which makes it easier to defend.

“So little things to tidy up. We’re creating a lot. We just got to be better.”