Monty Ioane: 'The good thing is teams are starting to respect us'

The tunnel had all but emptied out at Parc Olympique Lyonnais when Monty Ioane turned the corner and started making his way towards the Italy Rugby World Cup team bus near 1am on Saturday morning.

The 14-try All Blacks had been and gone, the likes of Aaron Smith and Sam Whitelock negotiating huddles that were far more rumbustious than what they had encountered from the Italians over the course of a very one-sided Pool A match.

Despite the wounding 17-96 scoreline, Ioane had a pep in his step. Rather than the match finishing with the All Blacks putting up the ton and scoring their 15th try, the Italy winger was instead diving over to wrap up the scoring in a corner flag-demolishing style.

He had to work so very hard for it against the New Zealand defence, even with the clock in the red.

He managed to fire a pass out of the contact despite getting tackled by Damian McKenzie and after quickly getting up off the ground to take the return from Paolo Odogwu, he spun out of the grasp of Beauden Barrett and then leaped at the line before Cam Roigard could nudge him into touch. Bellissimo.

“Obviously, I’m quite stoked that I was able to score against the All Blacks,” enthused Ioane in an exclusive chat with RugbyPass. “You could see at the end I have got a bit of a smile.

“It is nothing to be proud of because when you look at the scoring sheet it was 96-something, but I guess for me it was stamping my mark and taking my chances. That is the only reason why I had to celebrate it – and plus we finished on a try.”

It was January 2021 when RugbyPass previously interviewed Ioane, chatting over Zoom with him from Rome during the covid-restricted era of behind-closed-doors Test rugby.

At the time he was fresh from making his international debut the previous month and lapping up every new moment. Last winter. though, he decided to take a huge risk after his 17th cap, exiting URC franchise Benetton and missing the 2023 Guinness Six Nations to hibernate in Super Rugby Pacific in Melbourne with the Rebels.

He cited mental health issues as the reason, an issue that led him to stay in Australia close to his wife and children, but an agreement to sign with Lyon for the 2023/24 Top 14 season was soon followed by an Italy recall and his clock-in-the-red score on Friday night was his seventh try in seven appearances since his return.

“Definitely proud; definitely proud,” he repeated with effect, his Italy tracksuit zipped up tight and a bottle of water tucked under his arm ahead of the short spin east to base camp in Bourgoin.

“Kieran (Crowley) trusted me. I didn’t have the greatest rugby season but for me that was more like a break from rugby for me. I was able to go home, reset the mind mentally, come back and then just switch on. I’m so stoked to be back.

“I didn’t know I was going to be here (at the World Cup), to be honest. Kieran just gave me a call. We did keep in contact but I wasn’t sure that I was going to be here. He gave me the opportunity and I guess every game that I get I’m just taking my chances.”

Ioane will have at least one more opportunity at these finals. Next Friday’s pool finale back in Lyon will see the Italians tackle France knowing that a surprise win would eliminate the hosts from the tournament. A shot at redemption after their hammering by the All Blacks? Yes, please, boomed the Azzurri winger.

“Of course, we are not going to put the head down and just give up from that because obviously, we have made progress over the years. It [the All Blacks was a good wake-up call for us. Our heads were a little in the clouds, winning the last two games against Namibia and Uruguay, and that kind of just set the pace for us to show that the good thing is teams are starting to respect us.

“For example, the All Blacks, they respected us to put their No1 team out there and that’s the pace and that’s the standard they set. For us to go out there and play next week against France, it’s just going to be another beast so that was perfect for us; sorry not perfect but in terms of keeping our feet grounded it’s a good opportunity for us to take into account all the mistakes that we need to make up for and take them into next week.”

What was it like, though, being out there for 80 minutes with the All Blacks scoring tries for fun? “If we’re not really in synch it does make it a lot harder, they are beating us with pace around the corner and then trying to go wide on us which is real tough for us.

“It’s just I am not going to say it is new to us. Every year we play against the top teams like France. France beat the All Blacks and the Irish beat the All Blacks, we’re constantly up against these teams that are playing that kind of style.

“It’s just for us we needed that good wake-up call because pre the World Cup, we had a good couple of wins but those were against tier two teams and that just shows, like I said before, the standard that we need to set.”