Friday's Rugby World Cup action brought a bruising result for Italy, as they were massacred by New Zealand in Lyon.
The All Blacks had 49 points on the board by half-time and, by the game's conclusion, it was 96-17 in their favour. It was an historically bad loss for Italy, second only to their 101-3 defeat to the same opposition in 1999 as the heaviest defeat in their Rugby World Cup history.
Given Italy have only won one Six Nations game in the past eight campaigns, there has been persistent debate in recent years as to what their place among the tier one nations is - and ex-England wing Chris Ashton thinks Friday night's drubbing puts that status under serious threat.
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New Zealand 96-17 Italy: Ashton thinks tier two nations will have question marks
Italy will now be licking their wounds ahead of the daunting task of facing hosts France in Lyon on Friday night, with their World Cup journey set to come to a damaging end.
Lienert-Brown scores his 14th international try and New Zealand's 14th of the night...#NZLvITA | #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/VJCa0BVToX
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) September 29, 2023
In truth, nobody would have expected Italy to go far in this tournament given their poor record in recent years and their monumentally tough draw, but the manner of their defeat to New Zealand has most certainly raised eyebrows.
Chris Ashton appeared on the BBC's Rugby Union Daily podcast live from France to discuss the battering handed out to Italy on Friday night, and said that he believed "tier two" nations would be watching with interest after another poor Italian performance.
Ashton suggested that the likes of Uruguay and Portugal, who have impressed with their brand of rugby thus far in the World Cup, would feel that they could do a better job than the one done by Italy on Friday night:
The fact they racked that up with ease...I was involved, in 19 years of playing, in only one 100+ point game. That would have been in the Championship. Even that game felt ridiculous that we were scoring every couple of minutes. New Zealand have just absolutely battered a fellow tier one nation.
It has to be [a damaging result for Italy]. There's always this talk of whether Italy should be in or out.
If you're these tier two teams...if you're Samoa, if you're Tonga, if you're Portugal or Uruguay, you're looking at that and thinking, 'we can do better than that.' They're the ones that are hurting because they're looking at that and thinking, 'we are definitely better than that, with the resources that we have.
'Italy keep getting the chance, time and time again. We aren't getting a foot in the door here, but we're performing better than what we've just seen tonight.'
More questions to be answered after tonight, I think.
The performances of tier two nations at this World Cup has been the subject of much discussion, with a thrilling draw between Georgia and Portugal leading some to suggest that more teams should be integrated into the Six Nations.
Debates surrounding Italy's place in the competition are sure to be amplified by the dire result in Lyon on Friday night, as they prepare for an early trip home from France.
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