Feek confident All Blacks scrum will lift

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As the team prepares to play Namibia in Toulouse on Saturday (NZT), he said the loss to France had 'put the microscope' on some things, but they did not have to reinvent the wheel or push panic buttons.

"Scrummaging now with the power that we have and the timing, I suppose you could compare it to a goal kicker; if he [a front-rower] is a centimetre or an inch off that could be three or four by the time he engages and that could be the difference at international level, particularly at World Cups when the referees and the game want it to be as much game time as possible."

There was still confidence among the talented group they had despite the losses to South Africa and France.

"Just a couple of things need to click and get our game going like we did at Mount Smart (against South Africa 35-20 in July) where we just hit the ball, and we go, play our game.

"Going into the French, I always look back at preparation, and maybe there were a few things we didn't quite nail off. So, we are trying to get that to the best we can.

Another issue was speeding the game up to the level the All Blacks like to play. He said some of that was speaking to the referees to get them to deal with players going down with injuries or opponents taking too long to get to lineouts.


"We would like to play more footy. We want to get our game going, get into a fast-paced game that suits us, our style that we love to play.

"If we can hold on to that ball, I am excited to see what can happen."

Feek said the beauty of rugby was dealing with the changing conditions and the different styles teams employed.

"We noticed at the weekend the ball was like soap, so more kicking was involved. The strategy around yellow cards [meant] there might be more kicking and less running maybe for the forwards.

"There are things that are happening because of the different elements. But who knows? That might change in two weeks' time. You can see the weather starting to change. That's the great thing about rugby, there's always something different to throw into the mix."

All Blacks v Namibia: Saturday 16 September, 7am NZT (Friday 15 September, 9pm CEST). Live on Sky Sport.

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