Italy ready for All Black bullies, says coach Crowley

Italy’s New Zealander head coach Kieran Crowley says his countryment will try to bully the Azzurri in their World Cup match © Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP<br />

Italy are ready for New Zealand’s intimidation and bullying tactics, head coach Kieran Crowley said on Wednesday after naming his team to face the All Blacks.

The New Zealander made three changes and three positional shifts to the side that beat Uruguay 38-17 last week.

“The players that have missed out are obviously disappointed but it’s a World Cup Test match, it’s pretty bloody important, so it’s the strongest team that we can field,” said the straight-talking coach.

The side he has picked for Friday’s clash in Lyon is almost the same as the one that started their opening 52-8 Pool A victory over Namibia.

Given the history between the two teams—New Zealand have won all 15 previous Tests by an average of more than 50 points — Crowley is expecting the All Blacks to try to bully his team, but says they are ready for that.

“This is a new team, this team’s never played New Zealand. The New Zealand team that they named today has never played Italy as a team,” said Crowley.

“Yes there are stats, yes there is history, but history is always there to be broken.

“We’re under no illusions about what’s coming: they’re going to come at us, they’re going to be aggressive, they’re going to be intimidating.

“They will try and bully us, so we know what’s coming, we’ve embraced that challenge.”

Not only have Italy never beaten the All Blacks before, they have never qualified for the World Cup knock-out stages.

Both those records would change if they win on Friday.

“This group of 33 players we have out here have really matured over the last 18 months, they have a lot more confidence in their