All Blacks ‘will put it together’

HANSEN: WE’RE KEEPING SOMETHING UP OUR SLEEVES Kiwis are building for the sudden-death games.

Newcastle

Steve Hansen says his All Blacks are holding back on their A game but the players haven’t held back on their disappointment in not yet being at their best at this World Cup.

It has left the world champions facing the question of whether they are deliberately keeping their powder dry going into their final pool game against Tonga in Newcastle on Friday.

The All Blacks were never expected to be truly threatened in a relatively lightweight Pool C and accordingly wrapped up wins over Argentina – the only team to test them in a match they won 2616 – Namibia and Georgia, to qualify for the last-eight with a game to spare.

But although never in danger of losing, New Zealand never looked convincing, which according to coach Hansen was to be expected.

Winning by cricket scores doesn’t help, he argued, and the All Blacks were testing themselves under various scenarios to prepare for the sudden-death matches ahead.

“Clearly we’re keeping some things up our sleeve, which we think is the sensible thing,” Hansen said.

If he’s right, it doesn’t get any closer to the quarterfinal than the last pool match, which means Tonga are in for a torrid time.

Scrumhalf Aaron Smith said he was “pretty disappointed in our performance”, during New Zealand’s last match, a 43-10 win over Georgia.

“But it was a really big game for us and we’re just building,” Smith explained. “It was a tough watch but exciting to watch too because you could see we are getting close to achieving what we wanted to.”

The All Blacks had their bonus-point fourth try inside the first quarter but crossed the line only three more times in the remaining 60 minutes against an increasingly competitive Georgia.

“There’s areas of our game we need to continue to work on and as we get them right we’ll cross the chalk a bit more often,” said Tawera Kerr-Barlow, who replaced Smith for the final 10 minutes. –