After a long five weeks, the All Blacks have now finished their away tour campaign earlier today at Juventus FC’s Allianz Stadium in Torino v Italy. Yes, it has been somewhat scrappy and quiet at times by both teams, but the ABs know what they’re doing to get themselves over the line including their 11 point lead at half-time (6-17) — as a win is a win after all at the end of the day by 18 points, 11-29.
All in all, there is still some room for improvement going into 2025 with some key players moving on like Sam Cane & TJ Perenara. We saw that coming last weekend when they lost to France while they almost to the Wallabies in the 1st Test here and also lost twice to the Springboks all from 2-3 months ago. But not to worry, there should still be more good days ahead for the Men in Black under head coach Scott Robertson after his first year.
It’s been great seeing Cam Roigard back on the field lately in the AB’s away tour after a long six months out from his knee injury. He’s made some terrific moments that a classic half-back could do including a few of his own like the one Cam scored earlier in the first half v the Azzurri as if he scored a goal in soccer for Juventus at their Allianz Stadium. Looks like the Canes need him to stay fit all of next year including another ABs campaign that could hopefully win the Canes a Super Rugby Grand Final – something they haven’t done in a long time since 2016.
We also saw the best of Beauden Barrett who has been doing all sorts of tricks as always on top of his excellent conversion kicks before he managed to finish off the ABs 2024 term in style. He’s at the right place at the right time when he will be back for the championship-winning Blues in Auckland & same again for the ABs next year, so he can play for the 2027 World Cup. Going to miss one of his long-time team-mates in Sam Cane though who made the openside 7 of his own over the last decade. Yes, the ABs made some mistakes too but they should be fine as long as it’s the right replacement for Sam.
And despite the loss, great to see some Italian attacking finesse on top of their good start from their outside backs, particularly in the 2nd half from super sub Marco Zanon. He’s the guy who can create all sorts of moments like how he ran off Mark Talea from the high ball thanks to Tommaso Menacello before he found Menacello again for their one & only TRY. If they had more ball & if it wasn’t for their poor discipline, then they would be right on the money with a more robust backline to make them spin out in circles like in Mario Kart.