ROME -- When the All Blacks came to the Stadio Olimpico Saturday Italian fans spirits had been bolstered by the New Zealanders’ recent defeat at the hands of the Irish in Chicago. With this in mind and safe in the knowledge that Steve Hansen would rest a number of key players there was real Italian expectation that there could be a chance of taking something from the match or at least making a game of it.

 The Autumn International Test opened frenetically with the Italians looking particularly lively, ultimately it was short lived as a neat piece of handling put Malakai Fekitoa over the line on the four minute mark. From this point onward, apart from a penalty to draw the scores back to 7-3, it was the turn of the All Blacks to step up another gear reducing the Italians to mere spectators at times.

 In the first half when the All Blacks scored five of their 10 tries, they kept possession for 18 minutes in comparison to Italy’s paltry six. Even though this was an extremely young New Zealand team with half of the starting fifteen being 25 or younger they showed their quality with converting possession into points.

 In such a one-sided game the Italians played their part as far as they seemed to run out of ideas beyond pick and drives into an incredibly well organised All Black defensive line that held its shape throughout and accomplished the limited task of keeping the Italian attack at bay. In fact, one of the few moments that saw a slip in quality saw Boni run in an excellent try that started on his own ten-metre line but by the time he did so it was merely a consolation prize.

 Ultimately, it was clear that the ambition and zeal of the 60,000 supporters was overly ambitious. This team had won 23 on the bounce before the Irish and today was a chance for them to prove a point. Their basic skills such as set piece and line speed were excellent but their willingness to play the continuity game and run the ball should be applauded.

The All Blacks proved that their brand of fast flowing offload based Rugby works. Italy, a side that competes against a strong field in the Six Nations, were reduced to chasing the All Blacks out to one touchline and think they had shut down the threat only for the ball to stay in play and be shifted back across.

The pace and skill of the execution was such that soon there were no defenders left, only an All Blacks' ball carrier and a phalanx of support runners.

Italy (3): 10

Tries: Boni Con: Allan Pen: Canna

New Zealand (35) 68

Tries: Fekitoa (2), Faumuina, Tuipulotu, Dagg, Crockett, Luatua, Dixon, Ioane, Naholo Cons: Cruden (7), Sopoaga (2)