{"id":335002,"date":"2023-09-29T23:36:20","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T23:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=335002"},"modified":"2023-09-30T01:01:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T01:01:00","slug":"pint-sized-all-blacks-star-wows-world-rugby-with-hat-trick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=335002","title":{"rendered":"Pint-sized All Blacks star wows world rugby with hat-trick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Smith scored almost as many points as Italy on his own in New Zealand's<\/a> near-record win in their Rugby World Cup<\/a> pool match.<\/p>\n

Before half-time, the pint-sized scrum half had three tries to his name in what was a remarkably one-sided match.<\/p>\n

The first of those was a rather bizarre effort when Smith scored off the back of a rolling maul in the 17th minute.<\/p>\n

Watch all the action from Rugby World Cup 2023 on the home of rugby, Stan Sport. <\/strong><\/em>Every match ad free, live and on demand in 4K UHD<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In the 27th minute, another driving maul opened the door for Cody Taylor to off-load the ball to Smith on the short side.<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/p>\n

He ducked and weaved through the Italian defence, beating two opposition players before diving over the try line.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>All Blacks' 14-try 'statement' puts world on notice<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Jones prepared to be 'fall guy' for World Cup flop<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

EXCLUSIVE: <\/strong>'He's a giant': Brother could steal Pangai's thunder<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/p>\n

The third try (below) was a more conventional effort after Jordie Barrett pierced a gap in the defensive line before passing to Smith for his third.<\/p>\n

\"Aaron<\/p>\n

Italy were soundly out-classed, but there were flashes of brilliance.<\/p>\n

The Azzurri finally broke through in the 48th minute thanks to Ange Capuozzo.<\/p>\n

Italy went from one side of the field to the other off the back of a scrum, finding clear air for the winger to touch down.<\/p>\n

\"Aussie-born<\/p>\n

The only other try for Italy came at the death when Monty Ioane broke the New Zealand defence and just scraped in (above).<\/p>\n

It was millimetre-perfect stuff from the Australian-born winger, whose leg only just stayed in the field of play as he grounded the ball.<\/p>\n

New Zealand have one more pool match against Uruguay on October 6 while Italy will conclude their campaign against France a day later on October 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aaron Smith scored almost as many points as Italy on his own in New Zealand's near-record win in their Rugby World Cup pool match. Before […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":335005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335012,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335002\/revisions\/335012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/335005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}