All Blacks vs Italy: Ethan de Groot gets start after off-field indiscretion

Unlike former coaches, Robertson and his selectors have not rung the changes for the Italy encounter though there was discussions to bring in squad members for more game time.

“Everyone has played. Ethan de Groot plays this weekend so they’ve all had a match. We had those conversions, the balance we’ve got a couple of changes ... we’ve kept the balance of the squad as similar as we possibly can.”

“They had three to four weeks off before and because they missed the Japanese leg we primed the team to come all the way through. There have been a few injuries in the background, who are not playing, in essence, the 30-man squad we’ve picked from who are fit, available and are healthy,” Robertson added.

Robertson said there was five or six players who could have been rested this week but the defeat to France last week changed that.

“I think that’s part of the reason we named the team. The guys were desperately disappointed last week. We created so much and the French just took a few opportunities, the game changed and we had our chances which we didn’t take. We wanted to come up here and sweep the north. The margins are small. Not we get a chance to finish properly. The guys were all putting their hand up. It’s been a big 40 days for us and we want to finish with a performance we’re proud of.”

All Blacks: 1 Ethan de Groot, 2 Codie Taylor, 3 Tyrel Lomax, 4 Scott Barrett (c), 5 Patrick Tuipulotu, 6 Wallace Sititi, 7 Sam Cane, 8 Ardie Savea, 9 Cam Roigard, 10 Beauden Barrett, 11 Caleb Clarke, 12 Anton Lienert-Brown, 13 Rieko Ioane, 14 Mark Tele’a, 15 Will Jordan.

Reserves: 16 Asafo Aumua, 17 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 18 Fletcher Newell, 19 Tupou Vaa’i, 20 Peter Lakai, 21 TJ Perenara, 22 David Havili, 23 Damian McKenzie.

All Blacks vs Italy, Sunday 9.10am. Live commentary on Newstalk ZB, Gold Sport and iHeartRadio. Live match blog at nzherald.co.nz