New Zealand vs Italy Prediction & Betting Tips - Rugby World Cup

Prediction published on 27/09/2023, 06:42  by Steve Ashfield | Modified on 29/09/2023 at 07:00 in Rugby World Cup Prediction

New Zealand face a must-win match against Italy in the 2023 Rugby World Cup. This is a Pool A fixture with New Zealand currently in third, five points behind their second-placed opponents. The All-Blacks certainly won't want to follow Australia and be knocked out in the pool stages. They have played two matches so far and didn't get off to a good start. Their opening fixture was against hosts France who beat them 27-13 hitting their hopes of winning the pool. They got back into winning way with the expected victory over Namibia, winning 71-3. Now they take on Italy before a final match against Uruguay. Losing to the Italians would end their World Cup hopes and see them eliminated in the pool stage for the first time. The players rested for the Namibia game will make their return and we fully expect them to win this match.

Italy are second in the pool but that's not a big surprise. They have won both of their two games so far with victories over Namibia and Uruguay. It'd have been a massive shock if they hadn't managed to get those wins. Now it gets a lot harder with this match against the All-Blacks followed by a final game against France. They have had 15 previous matches against the All-Blacks and have lost each and every one of them. Going into this World Cup the Italians were ranked 11th which is seven places lower than their opponents. There has been some improvement of late but they struggled at times against Uruguay. We go for New Zealand to win this on a -24 points handicap.