Aisle be Back: All Blacks v Italy

• By Kevin McCarthy 

We are clearly disrespecting Italy by rushing to write the summaries of Razor Year One.

So, apologies to that fantastic country – but a victory is highly unlikely, unless they flood the arena in Turin and bring in the sharks.

Assuming the All Blacks add another win, they’ll end the year with four losses – two to the Boks away, one to France, one to Argentina – and 10 wins. Very Foster like if you are into percentage of wins as the key metric.

Indeed, some people say the jury is  very much out on whether much has really been changed by dumping a coach who indeed got his side to the World Cup final.

Certainly, fair enough to ask that, and mid-year, it was indeed looking like Razor was struggling with the step up to international level. Albeit that that did not take into account an unusually tough early schedule of games.

The selection of a conservative squad – with some old-timers like Sam Cane and TJ Perenara – did see a somewhat overegged narrative that Robertson was, well, conservative.

The word was that barring injury, he wouldn’t have risked Wallace Sititi starting quite yet. If true, then there’s one word for that – luck. As Napoleon reputedly said about his generals, he’d rather they had luck than ability necessarily. Yeah, perhaps we’ll dump that last bit.

The Northern tour, with one scratchy win (England), one convincing win (Ireland) and one frustrating loss (France), can be rated a big success, however.  The English may disagree, but luck had little part to play in that.

And yes, taking the three with six minutes to go against France was totally the right call – six minutes plus injury time against a French side leaking penalties is plenty of time

Notwithstanding the persistence of some fault lines still to be ironed out, like the closing game management, the trend is clearly up. Three of the match halves played by the All Blacks (in South Africa and in Paris) were pretty top-notch, and yet all those games were  lost.

But the scrum and lineout continue to power up, while the side has battle-hardened Damian McKenzie, and got Beauden Barrett back to his prime spot. There’s signs the attack is gelling, and there’s no shortage of talent knocking on the door.

A ton of work-ons then, but I’d be very surprised if the All Blacks haven’t turned the corner.

So back to Italy, and farewell to two Gladiators. It’s been great to see Sam Cane having very much a redemption year, after the cruel circumstances of the red in last’s year’s world cup final.

And the Hurricane’s legend TJ Perenara will no doubt lead the haka to cap off his top-level career.

Have we been entertained? Very much so.

On that note, here’s to a grand summer, and optimism for 2025.  See you next year (if the editor agrees, course).

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All Blacks match-day 23 (caps in brackets)

1.  Ethan de Groot (28)
2.  Codie Taylor (95) (Vice-Captain)
3.  Tyrel Lomax (43)
4.  Scott Barrett (79) (Captain)
5.  Patrick Tuipulotu (50)
6.  Wallace Sititi (9)
7.  Sam Cane (103)
8. Ardie Savea (93) (Vice-Captain)
9.  Cam Roigard (9)
10. Beauden Barrett (133)
11. Caleb Clarke (28)
12. Anton Lienert-Brown (83)
13. Rieko Ioane (80)
14. Mark Tele’a (18)
15. Will Jordan (40)

16. Asafo Aumua (19)
17. Ofa Tu’ungafasi (67)
18. Fletcher Newell (21)
19. Tupou Vaa’i (37)
20. Peter Lakai (2)
21. TJ Perenara (88)
22. David Havili (29)
23. Damian McKenzie (61) 

Unavailable due to injury: Tamaiti Williams (neck), Jordie Barrett (knee), Samipeni Finau (concussion), Sam Darry (knee), Ethan Blackadder (calf), Luke Jacobson (fractured thumb) and Dalton Papali’i (upper hamstring)

The All Blacks’ final match of the Northern Tour will also be the final match in the black jersey for long-serving All Blacks Sam Cane and TJ Perenara. Cane will sign off his remarkable All Blacks career in the No.7 jersey, while halfback Perenara will inject his trademark high-energy impact off the bench against Italy on Saturday night in Turin.