All Blacks look to clean up line-out

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Brodie Retallick is confident that the All Blacks have ironed out any kinks in their line-out ahead of Saturday's clash with Australia.

Brodie Retallick is confident that the All Blacks have ironed out any kinks in their line-out ahead of Saturday's clash with Australia.

Steve Hansen's troops struggled at line-out time in their opening Rugby Championship encounter, winning only eight of the 12 line-outs on their own throw.

Lock Luke Romano was forced off early in the match due to a groin injury and will not feature on Saturday in Wellington, with his spot going to Retallick who came on as his replacement in Sydney.

The Chiefs man admits that their showing in the line-outs was not up to standard but that this will be rectified.

“We let ourselves down a wee bit there,” he conceded. “Maybe we focused too much on getting the scrum right, and it just showed us that we need to concentrate on both.

“Last week gave us a baseline,” added the 22-year-old.

“A few things we tried might not have worked the best. I think [this week] should be another step forward. Last week there were quite a few penalties and we're just looking to eliminate them this week and get some good ball for the backs to play with.”