All Blacks coach Ian Foster has taken a 'glass half-full' stance on his side's error-ridden display against Italy in Rome on Sunday (NZ time).
After a disjointed opening quarter, the All Blacks finally found their rhythm, riding a dominant setpiece to a 47-9 win over a combative Azzurri outfit.
But few of the players in the virtual second-string team - featuring none of the starters who demolished Wales the previous weekend - would have pressed their claims for selection for the tour-defining final fortnight against Ireland and France.
Speaking after the game, Foster's focus was firmly on the silver lining - valuable big-stage experience for his relatively untested troops to add more depth to his squad.
"It was a good learning performance," said Foster. "We learned to deal with a lot of pressure and came out the other side. That side of it I'm pretty pleased with.
"To finish both halves in a strong manner was pleasing. Clearly we have to work on some of our decision-making with the ball a bit better. We put ourselves into a few brick walls at times.
"We've said from day one it’s a tour like no other, and we've had to make sure we grow depth on this tour because we've got players here for a long time, and we're delighted with the progress we've got out of that. Tonight was just another really good learning curve for a number of newer players."
Playing under new Kiwi coach Kieran Crowley for the first time, the Italians were highly physical and disciplined defensively, particularly through the opening period.
Although it wasn't pretty, Foster says he was pleased with the way his players responded to that adversity, weathering the storm and then settling into their work.
"We got put under a lot of pressure in that first 25 minutes," Foster added. "They found ways to slow the ball down, and we tried to force our game a little bit and a lot of that was the pressure they put us under. They probably deserve a lot of credit for the way they started that game.
"But what I was pleased with is we started to tighten our game up after a few errors and applied pressure mainly through our set piece.
"They stayed in the game right to the end and I think for this particular All Blacks team it was a great test match for us to have because we didn't get it our own way and we had to find a way."
"The fact it took us a while to settle down is not unusual in a test match and I liked the fact we actually found a way.
"We didn't allow ourselves to get too loose, we found some solutions and still scored three tries in that first half and added a few more in the second. Overall we got a good workout."
The players who best pressed their claims for the top 23 were the two veterans of the gameday side - the recovering pair of Dane Coles and Sam Cane.
Cane played all 80 minutes in his first test match as captain since 2020, while Coles - who had yet to feature on the tour - was the impetus behind the All Blacks' set piece ascendency that took the contest away from the Italians, scoring two tries from clinical lineout mauls in a man-of-the-match performance.
"Pretty good," Foster said of Coles. "He had his hands on his head after 49 minutes, so he looked like he’d given everything, as we expect Colesy to do.
I was really pleased for him. He had a big leadership role along with Sam [Cane] in that pack where there were a number of younger guys, and overall they’d be pretty pleased with their game."
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