All Blacks fail to live up to Italian hype

The All Blacks were well beaten by the Italians at the scrum. Photo / Getty Images

Frustration was the dominant theme for the All Blacks, as they left the San Siro disappointed they were unable to deliver the performance they were after.

It was an awkward 80 minutes for the All Blacks who were toasted at the scrum and unable to build momentum. They were reluctant to see it on those terms, however, believing that the Italian front-row had been able to bind in ways that were not necessarily legal.

That was the inference anyway. No one actually couched it in those terms. All Black coach Graham Henry said: 'We didn't play as well as we hoped. We dropped a bit of ball so the general mood is frustration and the scrum is part of that.

"I have been fortunate to be at many of the best and biggest stadiums in the world and this was right up there - as good as any of them. It is just a pity the occasions didn't live up to the billing."

Clearly, Henry felt the Italians had been aided in their scrummaging efforts and that the game stuttered horribly as a consequence. The backs had to operate on limited possession and it was usually slow ball. That left them running at a wall of blue jerseys and space was at a premium.

"I think Sergio Parisse [Italian captain] was the outstanding forward on the pitch," said Henry. "It's great to see a number of sides challenging that are meant to be better than them. So that is good for the game."

The final 10 minutes were not that great for the game. The play was stuck five metres from the All Black line with scrum after scrum being set only to collapse. It was a bizarre period where the All Blacks were penalised four times in a row without sanction. The crowd were sent into a frenzy as a consequence.

"I think 80,000 Italians thought there should have been a penalty try," said Italian coach Nick Mallett. The scrum was one area of the game where I think we were better and you want to be able to score points through those areas of the game.

"It was very disappointing for us to not score any points after we had been given so many penalties."