Following the All Blacks\u2019 47-17 victory over Italy at a sold-out Hnry Stadium in Wellington, here are our five takeaways from the Nations Championship clash.<\/p>\n
The top line<\/p>\n
For 40 minutes this was anything other than the procession history promised. Tommaso Menoncello stunned the Cake Tin inside three minutes, pouncing on turnover ball, beating the first defender with a huge hand-off and exchanging passes with Malik Faissal to finish a 55-metre strike from deep inside his own half.<\/p>\n
New Zealand replied through Sam Darry, who burrowed over from a powerful phased response, but Tommaso Allan\u2019s boot nudged the Azzurri back in front, and at the break the hosts led just 14-10 despite 66 per cent of first-half possession, Will Jordan\u2019s 48th Test try off Jordie Barrett\u2019s clever dink the only time New Zealand had genuinely broken the blue line.<\/p>\n
But the second half belonged entirely to the All Blacks<\/a> as they finally worked out a way of countering the brilliant line speed of the Azzurri<\/a> defence. Cam Roigard, Ethan de Groot and Tupou Vaa\u2019i all crossed, Jordan<\/a> completed a history-making hat-trick, and Niccolo Cannone\u2019s yellow card was upgraded to red by the bunker as Italy\u2019s brave resistance dissolved into a 31-7 second-half deficit. Cruel on their first hour, but utterly ruthless from the hosts who go two from two in the Nations Championship.<\/p>\n Back to basics<\/p>\n Dave Rennie\u2019s fingerprints are all over this team, and they were never clearer than in the manner New Zealand solved Italy\u2019s superb Toulon-style blitz. For half-an-hour the visitors\u2019 line speed ruled the contest, Nacho Brex leading, pushing hard from 13 and at one point, Ross Vintcent arriving so fast that Wallace Sititi knocked on with the flanker simply in his eyeline.<\/p>\n The new version of All Blacks under Rennie look more structured; they attacked through an unusually narrow 1-3-3-1, but critically, by flooding numbers around the carrier after contact, and initially it played into Italian hands, carriers running into the teeth of the rush.<\/p>\n Then came the decode of that impressive defence. Ruben Love, quietly impressive in his sternest tactical examination yet, began holding the pass that fraction longer, letting the blitzing defender overrun before releasing pull-back balls into the space behind. From there New Zealand were merciless, winning the collision, keeping the ball alive post-contact and flooding the vacated edges with support runners. Every try bar De Groot\u2019s came down a flank with the extra man arriving at pace, and the numbers tell the story of that efficiency: 108 carries for 577 metres against Italy\u2019s 59 for 222, and a second half in which the Azzurri held 62 per cent of territory yet were outscored by 24 points.<\/p>\n The De Groot score summed up the champions\u2019 DNA, born from a three-minute defensive stand, a regathered kick and a 50-metre burst from debutant Josh Moorby, who caused problems all night, albeit largely against a reshuffled backline defending with 14 men, as he filled in on the wing.<\/p>\n That man Will Jordan<\/p>\n Some takeaways write themselves. Jordan\u2019s first was pure instinct, ghosting onto Leroy Carter\u2019s one-shouldered offload after Barrett\u2019s chip in behind. His second and third arrived within three second-half minutes, the last of them carrying him past Doug Howlett to stand alone as New Zealand\u2019s leading Test try-scorer of all time. Fifty tries in 56 Tests. Howlett needed 62 matches for his 49, and the strike rate is the part that ends every argument: a try every 1.12 Tests, sustained across six years, in an era of organised, analytical defence.<\/p>\n The full performance was as complete as the numbers, a match-high 92 metres, five defenders beaten, two turnovers won and the deserved Player of the Match award. His support lines remain the best in world rugby, his finishing is immaculate under any pressure, and at 28 he may yet put the record somewhere nobody reaches. Wellington witnessed history, and it could not have happened to a more understated superstar.<\/p>\n