The All Blacks won plenty of lineout ball against Italy. Photo / Getty Images
By Liam Napier in Lyon
Numbers often reveal half the tale but on an agenda-setting, head-turning evening in Lyon, the All Blacks forward pack unleashed their World Cup blueprint.
It’s easy to be seduced by the captivating counter attack or the 14 tries the All Blacks scored - their third most in one match - in their second-largest win over Italy that defied all predictions.
“I didn’t see that game coming to that extent. We took their hope away in that first 20 minutes,” satisfied All Blacks coach Ian Foster said after his side’s 96-17 victory erased concerns around their quarter-final jeopardy.
“Maybe they [Italy] started to think about firing another bullet next week against France. If they beat France they knock them out if we beat Uruguay so there’s a few do-or-die games all over the place.”
The true story of the All Blacks’ dominance lies in their five lineout steals and six scrum wins on the Italian feed. In the test scene, those lopsided statistics are unheard of. This is where the All Blacks pack crippled Italy to lay down a marker. These are the foundations upon which their World Cup campaign must be built.
Dominant defence, supreme breakdown work and a menacing maul that created three tries also allowed the All Blacks to embrace attacking freedom to run for a staggering 808 metres and beat 31 defenders.
But it’s their set-piece strength they must attempt to maintain if they are to progress deep in this tournament.
“You don’t get numbers like that in many test matches do you? You enjoy them when they’re there,” Foster said. “We got some things right but you’ve got to go back and rebuild from zero. We’ve got some great lessons in this pool. France played well and beat us in round one and then struggled to beat Uruguay. We’ve got a clear recipe for what we need to do next week.
“We don’t go in having expectations, we’re going to start where we finished off today.”
Italy, in many respects, offered a case study in how not to play the All Blacks. Their attacking intent, the rash offloads and soft defence is not an approach the All Blacks will encounter come the knockouts.
Vastly superior opposition, the likes of Ireland who likely await in the quarter-finals, will squeeze time and space and attempt to depower the weapon that was the All Blacks’ set-piece launchpad against Italy.
For now, though, the All Blacks can only confront and quash challenges before them. After two weeks to prepare for Italy, Foster praised the internal edge cultivated in heated training sessions for this sudden-death pool match.
“It felt strange sitting on the sidelines for the last two weeks. It seemed the longer we weren’t playing the worse we got if you read the media. Funnily enough we believed in what we were doing.
“People create a lot of panic about your chances particularly after we lost the first one. The critical game for us in this pool was always going to be Italy. We had to play well.
“It means we’ve put ourselves in control of our own destiny. That’s where we want to be. It puts some pressure on other teams who still have some tough games coming up. If Scotland win two games Ireland can miss out. It’s a tough World Cup.
“If you win with a big scoreline people think there’s no value in it. The value was massive for us. We put ourselves under pressure the last 10 days for that performance. We knew we had to. We didn’t want to give Italy a chance. We respect them enough to know we had to be in the house.
“The South African-Ireland game was a very different game. The ball in play was 27 minutes. It was very stop-start, very physical, very combative. You saw a different spectacle tonight. At some point the world has got to decide what game they’d rather watch.”
In a blowout such as this individuals aplenty stand out. Ardie Savea savoured the free rein to bust tackles and stretch his legs in open pasture in a man-of-the-match performance. Codie Taylor flew off the defensive line and was prominent at the breakdown.
Shannon Frizell and Jordie Barrett’s starting returns - as well as Tyrel Lomax’s contribution and Sam Cane’s comeback off the bench - reflect the All Blacks’ collective capabilities when at full-strength.
“We got some important people back playing which was big for us,” Foster said. “Shannon showed how he went about his work. Jordie was the same. Tyrel when he came on finished off that scrum really well so there’s some nice signs we’re building a bit of momentum in that space.”
Other than perhaps coming off the bench to mark the milestone, Sam Whitelock could not have requested a more memorable performance to surpass Richie McCaw and stand outright as the most-capped All Black following his 149th test.
Whitelock reflected on messages and videos he received throughout the week - one in particular from former All Blacks lock Brad Thorn.
“He was there at the start for me. He really set me up to be successful. He used to tell Owen Franks and myself before we’d even played a test match that we’d play 100,” Whitelock said. “It was really cool to reconnect with him, see his lovely family, and reminisce about some of the stuff we used to get up to in the first couple of years.”
Whitelock’s wife, mum and dad were among the crowd to witness his achievement. His kids were there too - although two of them missed the match.
“There’s a few photos of them asleep so we’ll prove it to them that they were here when they’re a bit older. It was really nice to have that family feel here tonight and some cool messages from the wider All Blacks family - there’s a lot of them here too.”
She aims to start a family after the Rugby World Cup in England.