NC: All Blacks
Match thread
Italy
@Mr-Fish said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
@MacDazzler said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
Who are the ITV commentators for this match?
Nick Heath and former England player Nolli Waterman.
They are getting big hard ons for the Italians.
Doesn't sound like I'm missing much, but I'm in Fiji and the resort doesn't have the channel. And my free live streams aren't working. Sky and VPN neither 
The fuck is with this French ref? Italian loosehead drives in right in front of him, 7 then changes bind and swims up to join the front row. Penalises Black.
@Landers92 said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
Can we make sure we don’t play in Wellington for very very long time. This place is cursed
Unless you're the Hurricanes. 
@sparky said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
@Landers92 said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
Can we make sure we don’t play in Wellington for very very long time. This place is cursed
Unless you're the Hurricanes.
Which we aren’t…
It would have helped if Wallace decided to not detach - the next shove with him looking to break did for us.
@Landers92 said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
Can we make sure we don’t play in Wellington for very very long time. This place is cursed
We say this every year and they still get at least one a year.
@Bones said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
Jacobson has been doing a great imitation of DP last week and so far this week
Poor bugger has to do all the work in the loose not much help from the other 2.
@Canes4life said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
@sparky said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
@Canes4life said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
The quality of this game versus the Super final is night and day.
It's an entirely different game when you have a northern hemisphere ref looking to slow it down as much as he can.
And no punch up front. De Groot, Taylor and Lomax etc aren’t the types to bend a defensive line if we want to play optimistic rugby.
Grooter just carried pretty bloody well then.
He is quality link guy as well. Throws some really nice passes.
@Chris said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
@Bones said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
Jacobson has been doing a great imitation of DP last week and so far this week
Poor bugger has to do all the work in the loose not much help from the other 2.
Are you sure? Ardie has most tackles and 2nd most carries.
Sititi has second most tackles.
Jacobson has 2 tackles
@sparky said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
You can't play Sititi and Savea in the same backrow. And neither screams All Blacks quality to me.
Certainly can't. Way too similar.
Savea has been fucking ordinary eh. Would do well to not go off his feet before the tackle, literally every carry
Darry the pick of the ABs in the first half. De Groot good too.
Not much else to celebrate.
Get the underperforming ones off at half time. Perfect time for these coaches to be ruthless and prove a point. Sititi the first that comes to mind
going to have to take the ref out of this one, we need to keep it a bit tighter they are offside a lot
@Tim said in 2026 Nations Championship: All Blacks v Italy:
Pretty lousy half of rugby. Dumb Sititi ASAP. He's been absolute shit for two seasons.
Taylor proving again he’s done. Ardie as well. Both absolutely poor.
We're lucky Jacobson is on the field. Sititi and Savea have been trash when they've not been anonymous. McKenzie has decided to have another shit occasion.
Ruck speed is so slow, not enough close carries and no chip kicks keeping their offside defence honest.
Pretty shit half of rugby, not assisted by the cheese eating surrender monkey with the whistle.
Get a heap of the bench on
I wish we would employ a rush defence
Play around the fringes more
Good contest