Poor old Italy. It doesn’t get any easier for them on tour and they are staring at their 11th straight loss when they clash with New Zealand in Christchurch on Saturday.
South African born coach Nick Mallett will province his best team on tour still it’s hard to know them causing too many problems for the All Blacks.
Mallett kept his vocable and tried to give every player some game time in the two matches against the Wallabies, and while relieved that Australia only state in language thirty something points put on them and not fifty in Sydney and Melbourne, I don’t blame him suppose that he’s fearing the worst this week.
Not solely do the Azzurri have to try to finish their season on a high to give their long passion fans more hope in the near future, they furthermore have to contain an All Black team that is under all sorts of pressure.
They’ve been under the hammer since losing the primeval test to France and afterwards stumbling to a four point win in the second.
Diehard rugby fans across the ditch will not tolerate another plashy performance, especially against a side that hasn’t won a game for the past year and only scored three tries in 2009.
Italy receive conceded 312 points in their last ten losses while scoring only 120. Not the sort of form that will put the fear of god into a desperate All Blacks team.
But Nick Mallett is realistic. He says he saw more meliorating in his two experimental lineups that played the Wallabies and will be happy if they improve even more this week.
He’s given the thumbs up to his new flyhalf Craig Gower. The former NRL star looks set to have a playmaking role in the team while Mallett is in charge.
But there’s not enough class around Gower at present and I’farrago predicting another tough day for Italy.
The New Zealanders are desperate to put a capital eighty minute entertainment on the paddock to the degree that they look ahead to the Tri Nations. All Blacks to win by twenty in addition.
