What happened last time?
The last time the two sides met was during pool play at the Rugby World Cup.
It was meant to be the second-most-competitive pool game for Ian Foster’s side but then everyone remembered that Italy are probably the seventh-best team in the Six Nations and the All Blacks were in superb form in Lyon. The best of the 14 tries was from the kickoff after the second, when Ardie Savea broke the line and ran deep into Italy’s half before linking up with Beauden Barrett, who found Mark Tele’a wide left. The wing then bounced through four Italian players to score. The four-try bonus point was secured in the 22nd minute. It was an impressive mix of forwards-led tries and some action for the backs as well.
The line-ups
All Blacks side:
1 Ethan de Groot, 2 Codie Taylor, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 4 Scott Barrett (c), 5 Patrick Tuipulotu, 6 Wallace Sititi, 7 Sam Cane, 8 Ardie Savea, 9 Cam Roigard, 10 Beauden Barrett, 11 Caleb Clarke, 12 Anton Lienert-Brown, 13 Rieko Ioane, 14 Mark Tele’a, 15 Will Jordan.
Reserves: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Tupou Vaa’i, 20 Peter Lakai, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 David Havili, 23 Damian McKenzie
Italy side:
1 Danilo Fischetti, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 3 Marco Riccioni, 4 Federico Ruzza, 5 Dino Lamb, 6 Sebastian Negri, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 8 Ross Vintcent, 9 Martin Page-Relo, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 11 Monty Ioane, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex (captain), 14 Jacopo Trulla, 15 Ange Capuozzo.
Reserves: 16 Giacomo Nicotera, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Niccolo Cannone, 20 Alessandro Izekor, 21 Alessandro Garbisi, 22 Leonardo Marin, 23 Marco Zanon.
How to watch All Blacks v Italy
You can watch the game on Sky Sport 1 and it will be livestreaming on Sky Sport Now.
You can also find live updates at nzherald.co.nz.
