{"id":512099,"date":"2026-07-06T08:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512099\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T08:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:54:13","slug":"not-acceptable-key-area-all-blacks-want-to-fix-for-italy-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/512099\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Not acceptable’ – Key area All Blacks want to fix for Italy challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie and his assistants are all about the numbers as they drill into effort levels and workrates at the start of their campaign \u2013 but even the most casual of observers will have noticed a couple of concerning numbers from the weekend.<\/p>\n

The 32 points that France scored<\/a> under the roof in Christchurch and the four tries \u2013 and one was disallowed, remember \u2013 are two figures that quickly stood out as unacceptable.<\/p>\n

Another is three \u2013 the number of times the All Blacks were penalised for high tackles in the first half at Te Kaha \u2013 the first resulting in a yellow card for Ruben Love after only two minutes. <\/p>\n

There is no doubt that the relief of victory in Rennie\u2019s first Test<\/a> in his new role has given way to a determination to be far better when his men don\u2019t have the ball. <\/p>\n

Italy, the All Blacks\u2019 next opponents, may not have the strike weapons to hurt the hosts as badly as France in Wellington on Saturday but Rennie and company will be measuring their players\u2019 defensive effectiveness in different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know our defence has got to be a lot better,\u201d lock Sam Darry said as he and his teammates continued their preparations in Auckland before travelling to Wellington on Thursday. \u201cConceding 32 points in a Test match isn\u2019t acceptable for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early high tackles aside, France\u2019s short-passing game troubled the All Blacks and \u2013 in many ways \u2013 mirrored New Zealand\u2019s which was one of the reasons why the Test was such a close and enthralling spectacle.<\/p>\n

The visitors would get the ball to width and then quickly pass back inside, although No.10 Matthieu Jalibert\u2019s late converted try that narrowed the gap to two points with two minutes to go may concern the All Blacks in a different way as he took a brutal and brave line back through the heart of the defence.<\/p>\n

\"All<\/p>\n

All Blacks lock Sam Darry carries the ball against France in Christchurch. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

Darry added: \u201cThere are a few things we looked at around that \u2013 around how we can slow opposition ball down to allow us time to set and then winning collisions; it sounds very simple but often defence comes down to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forwards coach Neil Barnes said today of his team’s defensive effort: \u201cIt\u2019s just one of many [areas to improve]. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to be comfortable leaking that many tries, to be honest.”<\/p>\n

Barnes, a former Italy assistant coach, is probably a good man to have in the All Blacks camp this week as they prepare for the visit of the Azzurri.<\/p>\n

Italy lost to Japan 27-10 in Tokyo at the weekend, with the Brave Blossoms scoring all 10 points in the second half. The visitors, therefore, would present as an opponent several levels below France. A week later, the All Blacks play France at Eden Park \u2013 a different challenge altogether.<\/p>\n

Asked about advice for facing Italy, Barnes said: \u201cThe massive one would be to show them respect. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a team that knocked over England and Scotland last year. I was involved with them when they beat Australia and Samoa and pushed South Africa for a while. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been together for five or six years now and I\u2019m well aware as a coach that, if you keep a group of players together for that long, you start to become cohesive and really strong inside about who you\u2019re representing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be no lack of respect from us over what they bring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The selectors, including Barnes, will likely shuffle the deck this week to give others opportunities after a tough Test on a hard pitch against France.<\/p>\n

\"Antoine<\/p>\n

Antoine Hastoy runs in for a try for France against the All Blacks. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

Loose forward Anton Segner is likely to play a significant role on debut, as is Beauden Barrett, who has played 144 Tests and wasn’t required in Christchurch. Josh Moorby is another possibility to play on his home pitch at the Cake Tin.<\/p>\n

Darry, part of a locking partnership with Josh Lord that performed well at the weekend after the disruption of Patrick Tuipulotu\u2019s late withdrawal due to a tight calf, is hoping for another chance this week.<\/p>\n

Canterbury representative Darry, who was playing his first Test in Christchurch, and ninth in total, will know tomorrow whether his number comes up \u2013 the team will be announced to the public on Thursday. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rennie\u2019s insistence that his side play an up-tempo and \u201coptimistic\u201d style is clearly resonating with his players \u2013 the attacking numbers are evidence of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great for us,\u201d Darry said. \u201cAs a tight forward, you pride yourself about being good in the contact zone and I guess this is another string for us to add to our bow. I like to think that workrate is one of my strengths so I\u2019m really enjoying the challenge that Rens and the coaches have set for us around getting off the ground and getting set in position to play.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie and his assistants are all about the numbers as they drill into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-512099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}