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MARSEILLE - Italy coach Pierre Berbizier set his sights on New Zealand as he and his squad touched down in Marseille on Wednesday.
The Azzuri tackle the All Blacks in their opening match on September 8 before going on to face Romania, Portugal and, crucially, Scotland in a match likely to decide who finishes second to New Zealand in Group C.
"Beginning the World Cup by playing this mythical team is a great honour," said Berbizier.
"I saw their starting line-up this morning, it's probably their best possible XV. It will be a very tough match.
"When you play the All Blacks you know you'll get a battle across all the lines. The danger comes from every part of the team, even where you don't expect it.
"We also know about their ability to play for 80 minutes at the top level, thanks to their bench. We're going to try to stay in the match right up to the end."
One problem the former France scrum-half has is the limited recuperation time between Italy's first three matches, meaning he is likely to need to call on his subtitutes bench, which is not very strong.
Italy play three times from Septmber 8 to 19 before having 10 days off ahead of the Scotland clash.
"We have this important element to manage, playing three games in 11 days," added Berbizier. "We'll see where we're at afterwards to see what we need to do against Scotland."
New Zealand coach Graham Henry said he was expecting a very difficult match against Italy, much more so than the one which the All Blacks won 70-6 in their opening match of the 1987 World Cup, where they went on to lift the title on home soil.
"Italy are getting better all the time. They won two matches during the last Six Nations and their first away from home (against Scotland)," he said.
"They should have beaten Ireland the other day (they lost 23-20 to a last minute try on August 23), they were unlucky, so we're expecting a very tough match."
Italy captain Marco Bortolami vowed that his team will rise to the challenge.
"We've been training for two months and we're at the same level as the Irish who are saying they hope to reach the final," he said.
"But when we talk about the quarter-finals we say we can make it but we're not saying it's going to be easy."
- AFP
