All Blacks see tour north ideal RWC shakedown

As World Cup dry runs go, this November’s All Blacks tour north shapes as a doozey.

Over five straight Saturdays between October 27 and November 24 Steve Hansen’s All Blacks will face, respectively, Australia, Japan, England, Ireland and Italy, and will have to deal with significant travel hops from New Zealand to Tokyo and then on to the UK for the second part of the annual jaunt north.

It’s not quite a replication of the tail end of World Cup pool play, into a quarterfinal, semifinal and final over consecutive weekends to close out the tournament. But not a bad approximation.

The two tests in Japan against the Wallabies and Brave Blossoms will be a good little shakedown for the peculiar challenges of playing in the 2019 World Cup host nation. It’s been built just for that purpose.

Then the back-to-back tests against England and Ireland at their respective home fortresses will ramp up the stakes, pressure, interest and physicality. Kind of like what you are hit with over the semifinal and final of the World Cup.

Given events up north over the last month or so, with Ireland claiming just their third ever Grand Slam and England sinking to three straight Six Nations defeats and fifth place in the annual championship, the order also looks appropriate.

England will be tough, no doubt; but Ireland shapes as the true barometer, pitting the best team in the world against the inform challenger to that mantle. Likely as not, the champions of south and north facing off in an unofficial world title showdown.

All of which will have All Blacks coach Steve Hansen plotting furiously. He loves at some stage of his lead-in to the global tournament to recreate as best he can the unique pressure cooker environment of the back end of a World Cup.

So as well as planning how best to peak for those trio of high-end tests against Australia, England and Ireland, he will also be looking to test out a few of his systems, selections and theories to turn it into a bit of a 2019 RWC dry run.

Without doubt this November tour, with the added on third Bledisloe in Yokohama, presents a challenging set of circumstances that require some out-of-the-box thinking.

So expect Hansen to run two squads through this trip: his top group to tackle the Wallabies, England and Ireland, and the secondstringers to pop in for Japan and Italy.

That should also allow him to despatch as many of his fullstrength group as possible early to London to start preparations for the England test, even while Japan are being negotiated in Tokyo.

Hansen is certainly expecting a mighty test from both Eddie Jones’ England and Joe Schmidt’s Ireland in November.

‘‘Yes [England] have lost three in a row but it doesn’t make them a poor side and nor does it mean they’re in crisis,’’ he told BBC Radio 5. ‘‘It’s always tough after a Lions tour ... the off season will be really important for the English guys. I’m sure they’ll sort it out and will be a tough team to beat in November.’’

And he had no doubt about why the Irish had been able to be so much more effective that England off the back of that Lions tour.

‘‘They’ve got central contracting which allows them to maybe have a bit more control over playing time and playing welfare ... You see the result of that. Guys have had the opportunity to rest up and be mentally and emotionally and physically able to go out and play good test rugby.’’

It’s why Hansen is so insistent around the little details of his year, such as fitting in the camps he needs to get his men ready (he had the second of his ‘‘foundation’’ gatherings in Auckland on Tuesday), and keeping his top players as fresh and prepared as possible through the demanding rugby year.

That may rankle some Super Rugby coaches with other agendas in play. But Hansen understands it’s the little things that make a big difference at the business end of a test campaign.

They’ve (Ireland) got central contracting which allows them to maybe have a bit more control over playing time and playing welfare ... You see the result of that.’’

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen