Sam Cane led them with a direct purpose and fellow forwards Patrick Tuipulotu, Steven Luatua and Elliot Dixon delivered the confrontational style they had been asked to.
Charlie Faumuina's hands were back and Aaron Cruden directed a backline that saw Anton Leinert-Brown and Malakai Fekitoa combine well and Israel Dagg run as strongly as he did in his prime.
Italy were blown away, which was strange, because they go okay in the Six Nations. They don't win often, but they usually hang in there for a while, cause a few problems and make a game of it. Which opens two working theories. They were either horribly out of sorts in Rome, or the All Blacks, shorn of most of their regular starters, have a fairly handy second team in the making.
There's probably a bit of both ringing true but more so that latter point about the young All Blacks being full of potential.
They certainly didn't lack confidence and above all else, that was the quality that defined their performance. Whereas Italy were stilted, always falling back into the pocket to kick possession away, the All Blacks saw opportunity everywhere they looked.
In the first few minutes a simple but neat piece of handling and timing saw Malakai Fekitoa put through a big hole under the posts and the All Blacks grew in confidence from there.
The ease with which they scored let them know they were playing a side that didn't have much in the way of energy, drive or urgency and there was nothing to fear. The harder challenge for the All Blacks was going to be keeping their structure and discipline in the sense that they didn't resort to playing fast and loose without observing the need to win the physical battle, too.
That they held their shape so well was to their considerable credit. They also kept their set piece well oiled and their defensive line was effective on the few occasions it was called into action.
What that confidence meant was that the All Blacks' first instinct was to run, the second was to pass and the continuity game that was painfully absent in Chicago made a welcome return. And when the All Blacks run into space and offload, they become a different team.
Their physicality can intimidate teams, so too their reputation, but really what scared the Italians was the All Blacks' basic skills.
They start to look unstoppable when the ball keeps emerging from the contact and the next runner takes it on. Italy would chase the All Blacks out to one touchline and think they had shut down the threat only for the ball to stay in play and be shifted back. On and on it would go until there were no defenders left, only an All Blacks' ball carrier and a phalanx of support runners.
New Zealand 68 (M. Fekitoa (2), C. Faumuina, P. Tuipulotu, I. Dagg, W. Crockett, S. Luatua, E. Dixon, R. Ioane, W. Naholo tries; A. Cruden 7 cons, L. Sopoaga 2 cons)
Italy 10 (T. Boni tries; C. Canna pens. T. Allan con)
HT: 35-3
