Hansen: We can get down and dirty
With the job only half done, the All Blacks are heading to Wellington with a determination to hit just as hard and play even better in the second test.
They played well for long periods at Eden Park, did mostly what they set out to do and will feel their attitude was reflective of their focus and desire to perform at their best.
It was a comprehensive victory, built on the raw physicality of the forwards and the inspirational leadership of Kieran Read, who waltzed back into test football as if he’d never been away.
It wasn’t the All Blacks at their ruthless best but it wasn’t so far off either, and with a bit of fine-tuning, they will hope to take their performance to another level in the capital.
The obvious bits of their performance that worked well were their scrum, defence, finishing and collision work. They got them all right.
They punished the Lions at the scrum, attacked them and made it apparent that the predictions of one set piece being vulnerable were bang on.
Except it was the Lions who were wobbling and didn’t have the collective power or cohesion to resist — even if they had their best moment of the tour just before the break, scoring a counter-attacking try from inside their 22, through a brilliant break from Liam Williams and some slick handling.
It was a massive scrum by the All Blacks that broke the game. They had the put-in inside the Lions half in the middle of the field and put the hammer down.
The second surge came and the Lions popped. Read kept the ball in to work the advantage and then made his miracle flip pass to create Rieko Ioane’s first try.
But while the backs handled well, it was a try that owed everything to the tight five who created the platform and the security of knowing that there was a kickable penalty already in the bank.
“I thought our tight five were very, very good,” All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said. “If they do the job, everyone else can play. [Last night’s] test was always going to be won in the tight five and we won that battle but that doesn’t mean we will win it next week. We have to front up again. We have got to be extremely proud of what they have done.
“I always find it amusing when everyone says they are going to beat us up in the tight five because I think we can play down and dirty rugby
— and I mean that in the most respectful way.”
The power and presentation of the All Blacks ball carriers was also mostly good. They took contact on their terms, went past the tackle point and cleaned out ruthlessly to keep the ball neatly available.
It was good enough to prevent the Lions from generating that same defensive line speed that smothered the Crusaders and New Zealand Maori.
Hansen felt the key to making the speed of possession more effective came in the second half when the forwards were relentless in smashing it up and worked the pick-and-go, with Aaron Smith, then TJ Perenara, directing them to the right places.
“It was our ability to play off nine and get in behind them,” Hansen said in relation to what he thought the key momentum changer was. “Once we really looked after the ball and stopped trying to offload and the stuff we are known to do, we built some real pressure just doing that time after time. They had to make a lot of tackles. That fatigued them and when you are fatigued, you make mistakes.”