All Blacks coach identifies where it all went wrong against Argentina
All Blacks centre Jordie Barrett and defence coach Scott Hansen.
New Zealand defence coach Scott Hansen said doing introspection as a group is crucial if they want to turn the tables on Argentina in Saturday’s Rugby Championship rematch in Auckland.
The All Blacks suffered a shock 38-30 defeat against Los Pumas in their Rugby Championship opener at SKY Stadium in Wellington last Saturday and will be determined to bounce back when the sides meet again this weekend.
That encounter will take place at the spiritual home of New Zealand rugby, Eden Park, where the All Blacks have a 49-match unbeaten run which stretches back to 1994.
Superb Eden Park record under threat
The All Blacks have an impressive record at the Auckland venue over the last 30 years, which includes two draws and 47 victories and will have to be at their best if they want to continue in that vein.
When asked what will be needed from the All Blacks if they want to bounce back after last weekend’s disappointing result, Hansen replied: “Honest review, honest conversations, opportunity for us to see our game where we can be better. We’ve looked at our week last week around our preparation and the performance, so we’ve just come through our review process.
“What that looked like is good conversations around where our game is, where it needs to be, where the learnings are, and what we’ve been given as an opportunity for us to respond.
“We talked around what that needs to look like in our game for this opportunity coming in on Saturday.”
Hansen said the All Blacks coaching staff are working hard at fixing the problems from their defeat in Wellington.
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“What we’re engaged around is the quality of our skill sets, the execution of our roles, certain areas of the field and what that looks like, and also the ability of the components of our game, the synergy, our defence to our attack, our set-piece and the synergy there,” he revealed.
“So, again, back to the conversations around where the opportunities are for us to be better, and to be honest, we have those conversations after all performances.
“This is a performance that we need to correct around our intent, and basically us as a team making a stamp on the game.”
Hansen did not hold back when asked to identify which area of the All Blacks’ game cost them the match against Los Pumas.
‘Caught in our own half’
“If you look at facts and you take out the emotion, the facts are we were caught in our own half,” he said.
“Our efficiency of getting out of there wasn’t good enough. Argentina were allowed to apply pressure on us, and we didn’t respond well enough in that area of the field.
“So what does that look like? The efficiency, the understanding of us getting out of our half better to play.
“As we got into the Argentinian half, the facts show when we applied pressure, we came away with points. But also our skill sets at times let us down with the execution. So that’ll be our focus.”