TRI-NATIONS

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All Blacks prepare for Bok backlash

Monday 07th July 2008

Hard to please: Wayne Smith and Graham Henry

New Zealand's coaching team have highlighted a few crucial shortfalls in the All Blacks display in their 19-8 win over South Africa at Westpac Stadium saying the home side will have to step up a gear.

The All Blacks brains trust said they expected the Springboks to clean up their error-prone performance as key players such as Butch James and Victor Matfield were allowed another week to adjust to the Experimental Law Variations.

Head Coach Graham Henry said the home side would have to learn from their mistakes if they are be successful in the remainder of the Tri-Nations, pointing out that just one of the nine matches that make up the tournament had been played and that the standards reached on Saturday wouldn't be enough later on.

"We didn't scrum as well as we normally do and our defence on the short side was found wanting at times," Henry said.

"You don't learn without going through the battles. If we don't get better next week, we'll get second."

Assistant coaches Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen said the All Blacks were over eager to chase after turnovers on occasions rather than concentrate on defence.

Smith said the 15 missed tackles was due to poor adjustment to the ELVs, where too many players were flying into tackles and rucks rather than numbering up defensively - an example of which was Bryan Habana's try.

"We're pretty keen to get that turnover ball to attack with but we chased a couple of lost causes and then got caught out numbers-wise," Smith said.

"They came to play rugby a lot more than have in the last four years here but usually if you can go through 80 minutes without them scoring from an intercept or a charge down, you're doing pretty well."

The All Blacks will be without lock Brad Thorn for the second Test which could be a concern, considering the disruptive effect in the line-outs caused by the Springboks' 2.07m replacement lock Andries Bekker in the second half in Wellington.

Veteran line-out jumper Ali Williams said he and Thorn had been ready for a bruising encounter.

"We just knew it was going to be a physical game and the side that didn't bring it was going to be made to look silly," said Williams.

"Physically he just loves it, he dominates people, I've got so much respect for him."