Or, at least they didn’t get the job done the way they hoped to – through a statement performance defined by its cohesion, accuracy and class which would have enabled the All Blacks to leave behind the bitterly cold European winter with a little skip in their step and warmth in their soul.
Instead, they are heading back to New Zealand on the back of an underwhelming 80 minutes, during most of which they were error-riddled, unable to bend or break a resilient Italian defence and guilty of being dragged down to the level of their lower-ranked opponent.
The 29-11 scoreline could be used to mount an argument that the coaching group were right to respect Italy as much as they did and pick their top side, but the more persuasive argument is the All Blacks, through a string of unforced errors, lapses in concentration and loose decision-making, created the illusion of the two sides being much closer in ability than they are.
All Blacks captain Scott Barrett with head coach Scott Robertson after the game. Photo / Photosport
Other than the All Blacks’ scrummaging, which was destructive and relentless and mostly rewarded the way it deserved to be, it was a performance that failed to exorcise the demons that arose last week in Paris, and certainly didn’t create an enhanced sense of this being a team on an inexorable rise.
A prolonged fumble and bumble against an ordinary Italian team coming hot on the heels of a failure to finish France has cast the season haul of 10 wins from 14 tests in a different light.
It’s hard now to say with any sense of confidence or authority that the All Blacks know how to piece together all the various components of their game, and how to think and scrap their way through 80 minutes against any opponent.
A team that started the year against England a little uncertain in the headlights, a bit ragged and frantic and frayed at the edges, finished the year looking much the same against Italy.
The lineout was a bit wobbly, the ball protection at the ruck was nowhere near as secure as it needed to be, and for the third test in a row, Cam Roigard was having to deal with arms and legs and stray defenders clamouring all over him as he tried to get the ball away.
Repeat issues never sit well amid the narrative of progress, and the biggest disappointment for the coaching staff would have been the lack of cohesion, and the failure of the established combinations to justify why they were being wheeled out for one last hurrah and not left to stay warm in the stands to make way for a little experimentation.
There was just no flow or cohesion in anything the All Blacks did, and while they scrummaged superbly, they weren’t able to take full advantage of their superiority and convert their pressure into points.
It was a messy, messy performance, and one that, in time, the coaching group may come to see as a source of regret – that they didn’t take the opportunity to inject a few new faces, up the energy levels and answer a few questions about whether some of the fringe players are ready to play at this level.
It’s possible, almost probable, that at the heart of the All Blacks’ underperformance was a level of undetected fatigue.
The All Blacks weren’t able to take full advantage of their superiority and convert their pressure into points. Photo / Photosport
As a general rule, their body positions were a little too high in the collision areas. They lacked urgency and ruthlessness in the cleanout, and when half breaks were made, too often the support runners couldn’t get to the ball carrier quickly enough.
It all looked a little tired, as if there was a collective lack of zip in the legs and a bit of the brain fog that inevitably comes at the end of a long, hard season. This was maybe not surprising, as most of the starters were playing their fourth consecutive test – Wallace Sititi was playing his fifth – and previous All Blacks coaching regimes have felt three in a row is the maximum stint players can manage before their performance drops.
What Robertson may conclude, in time, is that he asked too much of too many and they simply didn’t have the juice left in the tank to dig out a fire-and-brimstone performance.
“It wasn’t the energy we wanted to have in a game like that,” he said. “Not against a passionate and tough Italian team that put a lot of pressure on us and kept rising up through the game.
“We did everything we could to get to this point. We sent out a strong team because we knew how tough it was going to be. We knew [with] the Italians, on a 65m-wide pitch and a bit of dew, that contact was going to be high.”
