Italy's 96-17 loss to New Zealand at the Rugby World Cup last week sent quite a few shockwaves around the game.
We are used to seeing big scorelines at the tournament, with the likes of Romania, Namibia, and Tonga shipping big defeats so far in the current edition. However, it is rare that you see a 'tier-one' nation come out on the wrong end of such a sizeable loss.
Italian rugby has looked to be making decent progress at times over the last couple of decades, although every spell of success seems to be met with an equally large setback. Friday's game certainly falls into that category.
Italy legend not impressed with team's approach in New Zealand loss
That fixture was seen as a massive opportunity for Italy, who were coming up against a New Zealand side that weren't quite the all-conquering force that they once were. Looking at the match, it's difficult to think that the Italians didn't buy into some of that hype.
Speaking to Planet Rugby, Italy legend Sergio Parisse suggested that his old side lacked 'humility' in the buildup to the fixture.
Look, I am not going to dilute this; the Italy performance against New Zealand was embarrassing for our rugby.
It wasn’t the loss; it was the how. I feel we got ahead of ourselves, talking about how close we could force a result on the All Blacks, a team we’ve never beaten in our entire history, and by speaking like that, we lost sight of the basics of delivery on the pitch...
I would go as far as to say there was a lack of humility in the lead-up. How can we pretend and state there’s no pressure when it’s one of the biggest opportunities of players’ lives against such an iconic side?
Once you start to believe that narrative as a player, you forget your basics – those building blocks of winning a match. This isn’t a case of being in awe of the All Blacks – it’s a matter of respecting your enemy, a simple premise of any battle, and I am not sure we did that.
It's difficult to argue with that.
Italy will have the opportunity to redeem themselves against France tomorrow night, where you get the sense they won't approach the fixture with quite such reckless abandon.
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