New Zealand assistant coach Jason Ryan revealed that the competition for places in the All Blacks side is keeping the players on their toes.
Ryan added that with South Africa set to arrive in New Zealand, it was crucial to have the All Blacks combinations ingrained with key fundamentals.
“We’ve had some good combos already and we’re challenging each other, but we’ll pick the best to team to front up for this Test, that’s for sure,” he told allblacks.com.
While there had been a focus on improving the last quarter play, which was an issue last year, Ryan said it was crucial to finish sets in every area of the game, whether from a scrum or lineout.
“We’re constantly trying to challenge ourselves to be better, no matter what the time on the clock is.” he continued.
“We showed in the French series, and against Argentina, that our bench is coming on and they’re a little more experienced than they were last year, and we’re finishing games with more power and quality. But by no means are we sitting back and patting ourselves on the back.”
Ryan said there were always momentum shifts at some stages of games that saw the All Blacks lose control in the Cordoba Test.
“We saw that just after halftime, when we lost momentum through accuracy and probably a few decision-making moments where we could have been a lot better. That put us under pressure.
“But, overall, we’ve made some good shifts in a few areas. We finished the game well [by] doing the basics.
“We were powerful and our game was starting to impose ourselves on the opposition. We know momentum shifts come and it’s how long you take to get yourself out of them.”
Ryan was pleased with how the All Blacks’ maul operated, but there was still a little work to be done.
“I know we won all our lineouts, but the accuracy, or quality of the ball into the hand, can be a little sharper. And speaking of handling, some of the handling in the first half looked rushed and caused errors.
“Some of skill execution at times was a little off. We were a little lumpy, the timing wasn’t quite there.”
More pressure at training was one fix the All Blacks could apply.
But he added, “Mistakes at training are great. The more we have, the better it sets us up for Saturday. We’ll push the boys hard this week, and they’ll want that as well.”
For the forwards, he said it was a case of continuing to work at getting simple things done well and building.
“We had moments in our scrum where we had some dominance and then moments when we played off the back of it, and that shows if you have got good balance, one sets up the other. But we’ve still got a lot of work to do with our forward pack and where we want to get with it.”
