All Blacks rule in Rome

ruckingkiwi says...

doldennut or donut.. Kaino, Thorn, SBW, Kahui are all missed but NZ look forward not backwards.

Saying the "AB's forward pack are pussies" is showing huge disrespect to Australia, South Africa and Argentina who NZ have played and beaten twice each this year and the fact NZ are still on course for the first unbeaten season any nation has had in 15 years proves how much of a wind-up you are. I can only laugh in anticipation at hearing which bunch of pussies you support.

Posted 19:56 18th November 2012

scorpion says...

Agree on very good game from Italy , however as in the past they tend to give up too many points in second half. Despite getting the ball along the backs, they lack any penetration to disrupt cutting up the center - like Nonu ? -Judging from the Australians's performance against England today - they will have a hard time of it.

Someone mentioned " more attention " for smaller players .Fine if they are strong enough-but a look at any of the leading players year on year, shows them all significantly looking more pumped up.

Posted 19:11 18th November 2012

runnrugby says...

Soft tries?!? Apart from the last one the others were well worked. If anything the Italian try was the soft one. Julian Savea had a hand in 4 of those tries. Scored two and set up two with nicely timed offloads.

@carpelone Thats how cruden plays. He often takes the ball to the line and frees his arms for the offload knowing he has support although the offload wasnt executed correctly. His acceleration when taking on the defensive line is what usually creates opportunites

Posted 18:38 18th November 2012

7ton says...

Surprised no one noticed McCaw cheating in the stands :-)

Posted 18:09 18th November 2012

carpelone says...

Impressed by Zanni, he never puts a foot wrong.

I agree he is quite under-rated internationally.

Posted 17:02 18th November 2012

carpelone says...

Hello everybody. First of all, I was referring to the first half, I really think that Italy was the best team on the pitch.

Bloody awful, yes, limited to the first half and by NZ standards.

My impression was that NZ took Italy a bit lightly and they were not prepared for the challenges. According to my information, Hansen was quite worried at half time.

I do not think that the right title for this is "ABs rule in Rome". This suggests the game was a one-way traffic and it was not.

Also the result has to be put into perspective. Cruden had a poor offload (throwing the ball backward without control), which was turned into gold by Smith to set Read's try. Bergamasco had a poor offload (throwing the ball without looking), which was collected by NZ. Episodes set the final scoreboard, even though I agree that there was no doubt about the winner.

Again, a good match to watch, played in good spirit and full credit to Italians. The way they played, phase after phase, starting form their 22 and ending up near the point zone, just before the half time was remarkable.

Posted 16:54 18th November 2012

kybone says...

macte- I think Italy deserve some more patience. If you think about it they only joined the 6N 12 years ago, so any young kids that started playing the sport at that time would only just now be reaching their late teens and early twenties, and any kids that have been introduced to the game in the meantime will still be in their early to mid teens. I would say, if Italy are still not producing skillful players in another 10 years time, then we can say that they're doing something wrong. They just need to make sure that the super10 teams produce as many young players as possible, and that the 2 pro12 sides get all the best ones into their teams, ahead of foreign players.

Posted 10:59 18th November 2012

Ramage says...

Italy played better than I have ever seen them play. This team had fluidity in the backline that hasn't been there before. They played with passion and a fair amount of skill but their finishing left a bit to be desired. The Blacks whilst being somewhat rusty put 42 points on Italy. It seems if the Blacks score tries through their running passing game then they are exposing gaps in the defence of their opponents. It is all very well to claim these were soft tries but fair enough if thats what you believe nothing I say will convince you. The Italians were more stout in defence yet NZ opened them up and scored tries. Of course they were soft tries according to these experts. To say Italy controlled the game is rubbish. Yes they played well but they gave up the tries because the Blacks probed their defences and broke them. Unlike the Italians who probed them and did not apart from one try. To say Italy did all the hard work and the Blacks none is ridiculous and that they could have won the game patently wrong. The Blacks were never in danger of losing this game and their patience and fitness shows as they are able to withstand the onslaught, absorb and then open up the opposition by scoring tries or kicking penalties. I certainly dont believe the Italians gave the Blacks too much respect as they attacked with verve only to be repelled by good defensive work but some scribes on here dont recognise that.

Ferdie I am very sympathetic to the points you are making but at the same time we are developing test players to step in when others are injured. What I saw from Italy will give them great heart for the 6Nations. Only France show they are a quality team. If Italy can play this well then some of the teams in the 6Nations will need to be on the alert as Italy have shown they are no longer easy beats. Outplayed? Carpelone,hardly,42 points isn't a team outplayed man.

Posted 10:12 18th November 2012

ferdie says...

disappointed in Hansen's approach - I would like to see the strongest side with no more than 3-4 changes in the 23, instead we have had eleven changes from the Australia test for Scotland, fourteen chages for Italy, at a guess ten or more for Wales from the team that played yesterday.

Regardless of result, in a professional/commercial world, anyone think some spectators disappointed to not see either McCaw or Carter on the field? Like going to international athletics to find Usain Bolt in the stand - same entry fee.

Gripe over, for a team that had never played together before they didn't do too badly but (here I go again) I'd prefer if there were still NZ A or NZ Juniors to try out these combinations.

Some great play from italy, admit have not seen too much of their games but some excellent running, not the scrum-focus we'd been led to expect, last 20min though they lost the plot, unsure if their subs improved things at all.

Read would have been my man of the match, ahead of Conrad Smith.

On to Wales and another 'new team' in Black.

Posted 08:11 18th November 2012

hayj05 says...

@carpelone - Bloody awful? That's in terms of AB's standards right? Because if they were bloody awful after making 14 changes then a few other teams this week were nonexistent.

They stuggled... But only because a fired up Italian side was playing so well. In fact I'd go as far to say that the first half & up until they made all the changes, was the best that I've ever seen Italy play & it showed the promised that they do have.

Jacques Brunel is the best thing to happen to Italian Rugby in years.

Took them too long to get rid of Mallett. I mean telling the media that their aim was to keep scores down, what kind of negative message does that send to your team? The more I think about it, the more ridiculous it was.

Brunel actually has Italy keeping the ball in hand & playing with confidence, even if they are still learning. But come 3 years time.. who knows? They might be good enough to make the knock-out stages for the first time.

That atmosphere was special too, I thought Argentina was amazing but that Italian crowd was something else. So happy for them that they had a positive game of Rugby to cheer on unlike that Milan game a couple of years back.

Nothing like watching a good game of international Rugby with a crowd singing like that.

Really hope that Italy push on from here. I noticed their improvement in the 6 nations & based on last nights performance they've continued to improve.

Posted 05:34 18th November 2012