All Blacks not standing still
Aaron Smith knows the Wallabies will be better in Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup test in Auckland, but says the All Blacks will improve as well.
The All Blacks won the series opener 38-13 in Sydney last Saturday night, running rampant in the second half after trailing 6-5 at halftime.
Despite the lopsided scoreline, Australia did have a good first half and that’s something for them to build on for this weekend’s showdown at Eden Park.
However, halfback Smith says the All Blacks completed their review of the test yesterday and picked up plenty of areas where they can get better.
‘‘It will be a lot more difficult than last week,’’ Smith said. ‘‘It’s an exciting game, we’re playing at home this time, which is awesome, but it’s still a massive challenge.
‘‘They’ve got threats across the park and it just starts again.
‘‘We can take a lot of positives from the weekend, but there are still heaps of learnings and opportunities for us to get better and that’s what we’re focusing on after our review this morning.
‘‘We don’t want to give away too much, to give them [Australia] any fuel or insight,’’ Smith added.
‘‘But we want to improve our game and get it to a standard of where we want to be.
‘‘You just have to look at our set piece attack firstly, it was pretty average and we got nothing off that.’’
Their attack from scrums and lineouts was one of the most disappointing aspects of last weekend’s test and given that these were both areas of the game where the All Blacks had an edge, that needs to improve.
‘‘It’s pretty disappointing, but there’s an opportunity this week to fix it,’’ he said.
‘‘If given the chance, I know there’s a few of us who’d like the opportunity to make it a lot better.
‘‘Something we always pride ourselves on is our set piece attack, but credit to Australia to be able to defend and show different pictures.’’
The All Blacks will be without wing Rieko Ioane, who has a hamstring injury, and midfielder Ryan Crotty, who clashed heads with team-mate Jack Goodhue and was knocked out in Sydney.
The Crusader has returned home to recuperate and his place in the No 12 jersey will be taken by either Anton-LienertBrown or Ngani Laumape.
It wasn’t pleasant for any of the All Blacks to witness what happened to Crotty, but Smith said they all knew it’s part of the game and as a team you had to adjust.
‘‘We all play that game with that risk of something happening,’’ he said. ‘‘In the weekend we didn’t adjust accordingly for a while and we didn’t cover this what ifs, but it gives someone else an opportunity.
‘‘We’re really close with Ryan and hate to see that kind of stuff happen.
‘‘The depth in our squad is amazing and in New Zealand rugby and you know that any guy who wears the jersey will do their best.’’
All Blacks fullback Ben Smith has had his fair share of concussions over the years, including a bad one against the British and Irish Lions last season.
He said he had seen some improvement in Crotty since the incident happened.
‘‘We’re good mates with Ryan and over the last couple of days he doesn’t seem too bad,’’ Ben Smith said.
‘‘His symptoms weren’t bad and you’ve got to take it as it comes.
‘‘That’s why the protocol is there, so you can follow it and I’m sure he’ll take that time and be back when he’s ready.
‘‘Giving him the time to go home and get what he needs will help him going forwards.
‘‘We feel for him as a mate.’’