- Title: All Blacks look to get back on track against Italy
- Date: 8th November 2016
- Summary: ROME, ITALY (NOVEMBER 8, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** NEW ZEALAND ASSISTANT HEAD COACH, IAN FOSTER, DURING NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW ZEALAND ASSISTANT HEAD COACH, IAN FOSTER, SAYING: "Oh look, I think we need to look at how we can get our hands on the ball, like we hardly touched the ball and there is a whole lot of reasons for that and that enabled the other team to impose their physicality on us and probably won that battle. So, there are some things that we have picked up from that that we'd probably do differently next time and we'll take that on board. That would be the key one." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW ZEALAND ASSISTANT HEAD COACH, IAN FOSTER, SAYING: "To me, you know, it's pretty obvious, when we look at the Argentinean game, that the Italians players put the Argentinean pack under a lot of pressure, and so we are expecting them to try and do exactly the same to us. There is going to be some big questions asked through the Italian scrum and through the Italian line-out drive particularly. And so we have got to be good enough." NEW ZEALAND LOCKS, SAM WHITELOCK, AND BRODIE RETALLICK, ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW ZEALAND LOCK, SAM WHITELOCK, SAYING: "We just did not have the ball in the first half so getting our hands on that early allows us to play our game rather than defending, you can only go for so long without the ball, so getting our hands on that and looking after it it's one of key things this week." (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW ZEALAND LOCK, BRODIE RETALLICK, SAYING: "Like I said I felt good and I've got through the running and the gym and stuff but the contact side of it is pretty big, obviously I've got to be able to take the knocks, so I need to do all that get my confidence back and make sure it's clear but other than that and hopefully I'll come through it." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW ZEALAND LOCK, BRODIE RETALLICK, SAYING: "Obviously, it's tough enough not to be a part of the game, you are sitting there and see us lose, it wasn't so great but the team seems to be all right and have bounced back so obviously we are just looking forward to resurrecting it and to getting out there and playing well against Italy this week." VARIOUS OF RETALLICK AND WHITELOCK LEAVING
- Embargoed: 23rd November 2016 14:38
- Keywords: Rugby All Blacks New Zealand Ireland Rugby Union
- Location: ROME, ITALY
- City: ROME, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Rugby Union,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA00157L5B27
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:New Zealand's All Blacks landed in Rome on Tuesday (November 8) looking to get back to winning ways against Italy at the weekend.
The game - to be played on Saturday (November 12) at Rome's Olympic Stadium - is the first for the All Blacks after a shock 40-29 defeat against Ireland.
Ireland's win in Chicago last Saturday (November 5) brought a record 18-match winning streak for the All Blacks to a halt.
"I think we need to look at how we can get our hands on the ball, like we hardly touched the ball and there is a whole lot of reasons for that and that enabled the other team to impose their physicality on us and probably won that battle," New Zealand Assistant Head Coach Ian Foster said on Tuesday (November 8) speaking of his team's defeat to Ireland.
"There are some things that we have picked up from that that we'd probably do differently next time and we'll take that on board. That would be the key one," Foster added.
Foster's comments were echoed by All Blacks' locks Sam Whitelock and Brodie Retallick, both of whom missed the Chicago game.
"We just did not have the ball in the first half so getting our hands on that early allows us to play our game rather than defending, you can only go for so long without the ball, so getting our hands on that and looking after it it's one of key things this week," Whitelock told journalists in Rome.
"Obviously, it's tough enough not to be a part of the game, you are sitting there and see us lose, it wasn't so great but the team seems to be all right and have bounced back so obviously we are just looking forward to resurrecting it and to getting out there and playing well against Italy this week," Retallick said.
After facing Italy on Saturday New Zealand will travel to Dublin to meet Ireland once more on November 19. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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