New Zealand beat 'proud' Italy in Cane's Test farewell
New Zealand saw off a battling Italy 29-11 on Saturday in their final match of the year as Sam Cane was given a winning farewell to international rugby in Turin.
Cam Roigard, Will Jordan, Mark Tele'a and Beauden Barrett scored the tries as the All Blacks beat Italy for the 18th consecutive time, with fly-half Barrett kicking the rest of the away side's points.
Cane, who was part of New Zealand's last Rugby World Cup-winning team in 2015, closed out his Test career with 104 caps while TJ Perenara also played his final All Blacks match as a second half substitute.
"Two special guys. They've been huge parts of the group. (Cane is) a real warrior, always put his body on the line, always gave his everything in the black jersey," said Jordan.
"We didn't have it all our way... We're treading in the right direction. It was an arm wrestle so it's nice to be on the right side of it."
Tommaso Menoncello dotted down late for Italy, with Paolo Garbisi kicking a six further points in a valiant performance.
Gonzalo Quesada's team had been expected to be heavily beaten by a strong All Blacks line-up but fought hard in front of more than 40,000 fans at a freezing Allianz Stadium.
"We are so proud of our performance. That's what we were talking abut in the week, we wanted to be proud of our team," said Juan Ignacio Brex, Italy's captain in the absence of injured Michele Lamaro.
"This has to be our base for the Six Nations."
Jordan passes Lomu mark
Italy led early on through Garbisi's two penalties but the enthusiastic hosts never managed to create any try-scoring opportunities in the opening period, not even with a man advantage following Scott Barrett's yellow card in the 20th minute.
Instead it was the sloppy away side who dotted down the first