Ten-try All Blacks punish Italy
MATCH REPORT: New Zealand bid farewell to the November Test Series with a massive statement as they marched to comfortable 66-3 win over Italy on Saturday.
The All Blacks came out firing on all cylinders after their 9-16 defeat in Dublin last weekend, with five unanswered tries in a dominant first half display to lead 31-3 at the break, adding five more after the break.
The All Blacks came out firing on all cylinders after their 16-9 defeat in Dublin last weekend, with five unanswered tries in a dominant first half display on Saturday to lead 31-3 at the break, continuing the punishment with five more after the restart.
Jordie Barrett — lining up alongside brothers Scott and Beauden for New Zealand — scored four times with Damian McKenzie dotting down for three of his own as Italy fell to their 15th defeat in as many meetings against the All Blacks.
The visitors’ coach Steve Hansen made 11 changes to the side that lost to the Irish but retained fly-half Beauden Barrett and fullback McKenzie.
TJ Perenara touched down the first try after nine minutes in the Stadio Olimpico finishing off a set piece move to cross for his 11th Test try.
Italy resisted the early pressure with Tommaso Allan’s penalty goal reducing the deficit after 13 minutes.
But it was to be the hosts only score of the afternoon as after quarter of an hour Patrick Tuipulotu set up McKenzie to dot down.
Beauden Barrett converted as New Zealand led 12-3 after 25 minutes before Irish referee Andrew Brace took a knock to his leg and was replaced by French linesman Pascal Gauzere.
Beauden Barrett then put through a grubber kick for the run of McKenzie who latched onto the bouncing ball to score his second try, but missed the conversion as the All Blacks led 17-3 to control the game after 30 minutes.
The Barrett brothers dominated the final ten minutes of the first half with both Jordie and Beauden touching down.
The punishment continued for Conor O’Shea’s Italy in the second half as they fell to their second consecutive defeat after last weekend’s 26-7 loss to Australia in Padua.
Man of the match: New Zealand were very impressive with the likes of Damian McKenzie, Beauden Barrett and Jordie Barrett. However, despite their flurry of tries there was one man who stood. His workrate was impeccable thus our nod goes to New Zealand hooker Dane Coles.
MOment of the match: When replacement hooker Nathan Harris produced a grubber kick which found Jordie Barrett for his third try of the macth on the 72nd minute.
Villian of the match: Italy’s lack of resilience, the Italians just stopped playing after the All Blacks’ third try of the game.
The scorers:
For Italy:
Pen: Allan
For New Zealand:
Tries: Perenara , McKenzie 3, J Barrett 4, Laumape, B Barrett
Cons: B Barrett 5, Mo’unga 3
Teams:
Italy: 15 Jayden Hayward, 14 Tommaso Benvenuti, 13 Michele Campagnaro, 12 Tommaso Castello, 11 Luca Sperandio, 10 Tommaso Allan, 9 Tito Tebaldi, 8 Braam Steyn, 7 Jake Polledri, 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Dean Budd, 4 Alessandro Zanni, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Leonardo Ghiraldini (captain), 1 Andrea Lovotti
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Cherif Traoré, 18 Tiziano Pasquali, 19 Marco Fuser, 20 Johan Meyer, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Luca Morisi, 23 Edoardo Padovani
New Zealand: 15 Damian McKenzie, 14 Jordie Barrett, 13 Anton Lienert-Brown, 12 Ngani Laumape, 11 Waisake Naholo, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Kieran Read (captain), 7 Ardie Savea, 6 Vaea Fifita, 5 Scott Barrett, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu, 3 Nepo Laulala, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Ofa Tuungafasi.
Replacemnets: 16 Nathan Harris, 17 Karl Tu’inukuafe, 18 Angus Ta’avao, 19 Brodie Retallick, 20 Dalton Papalii, 21 Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi, 22 Richie Mo’unga, 23 Rieko Ioane.
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: Pascal Gaüzère (France), Sean Gallagher (Ireland)
TMO: Andrew McMenemy (Scotland)
