With the Italy game cancelled because of Typhoon Hagibis, the All Blacks are going to have a crack at each other instead.

Maybe to save from getting a wee bit bored at the Rugby World Cup.

The players will have a full-contact practice match to stay sharp after losing the chance to do that against Italy in Toyota on Saturday.

Veteran outside back Ben Smith said it’s pretty memorable when the All Blacks go at each other in a training game.

“They’re pretty full on to be fair and I remember before the last World Cup, we had a game in Auckland like that,” he said.

“They got a referee in for that game.

“When you’ve got Dane Coles and the likes of Brodie Retallick and those kind of players, there’s always going to be a bit of niggle.”

New Zealand has had a couple of long breaks at this tournament.

The defending champions banked some hard practice during a 10-day gap between their first two pool games in Japan.

Because of the Italy cancellation, they’ll have had 12 days off completely before the quarter-finals.

Rest is good, especially at a busy World Cup, but there are signs the All Blacks are possibly getting a little restless.

“We’d have loved to have played (Italy),” said lock Sam Whitelock.

There’s an argument that too much rest can hurt a team as players get out of practice.

But Whitelock said there’s nothing to fear. The All Blacks sometimes have two weeks off between tests in the Rugby Championship.

“We should hopefully be in a good space for the quarter-finals,” he said.

Whitelock and some of the All Blacks have dealt with cancelled games before, when Crusaders Super Rugby home matches in Christchurch were called off in 2011 because of the deadly earthquake, and last March after the deadly Mosque shootings in that city.

“In both instances you understand why,” he said.

“Rugby’s just a small thing. We tend to get carried away with it a little bit, we’re so passionate about rugby, and we always want to go out and play, but sometimes the right thing is not playing.

“There would be nothing worse than if we did play and people were getting hurt.”