“We Need to Be Better”: All Blacks Eye Defensive Lift in Wellington

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Assistant coach Scott Hansen said of the 31-27 win in Dunedin, "We're not overly happy with the amount of points that were scored against us.

"There's a little bit in the gut around that, so we need to be better. You look at them in the Six Nations, the coaching, the philosophy around defence, the way they recover. They defend a bit differently than New Zealand teams, and what we've seen in Super Rugby Pacific.

"There are a couple of little pictures there that we can adjust to when we need to.

"But, also with their good defence, there're opportunities and we've seen it now. Now the challenge for us is to be better in how we attack it. We can build our game, we can get better."

The French would feel better about their effort in the first Test after being written off in many quarters, even while they were confident in themselves.

"They're young, excited, and they've talked about having no fear. What we saw was an excited and experienced French team that was proud to play for their country.

Hansen said the best way to reduce the TMO coming into the game was to deny him the opportunity by on-field performance.

"Our challenge is to give the TMO an enjoyable evening by being clinical and executing well so he can enjoy his evening."


Former All Blacks coach Sir Wayne Smith joined the side at Wellington and is performing a mentoring role with the coaching group.

"He's always there for us as a sounding board, it's great having him in. He's coached a lot of them and he just shares stories. He shares events that he's been through."

Hansen said they didn't have a return-to-play time for captain and lock Scott Barrett, but he would miss the rest of the series as a result of the injury to his calf muscle.

"We'll take it week for week, and he'll be keen to get back as quickly as possible. We want to be quite cautious with that given we've seen in other sports that calf injuries can easily turn into Achilles injuries."

With Ardie Savea taking over the captaincy, he would be able to call on support from the leadership group.

Prop Pasilio Tosi said they had just been told Barrett wouldn't be playing, but they had confidence in Savea, who has led them before.

Tosi said France had stepped up in Dunedin, forcing the All Blacks to make errors, but they were ready to right those in Wellington.

"We know we're going to be up against another good France team. They'll review the game and we'll review there's."

The All Blacks were disappointed to have three tries ruled out by the TMO, but there was no escaping their presence.

"They're always there, so we've got to be squeaky clean. I ran into a French player so I need to be mindful of not getting in their way."

Tosi expects more fire from the French bellies, having missed a chance to get one over the All Blacks in Dunedin.

"I expect an aggressive France team, that will test us."

Find out where to watch All Blacks v France around the world HERE.

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