Savea says ABs raring to make amends

The All Blacks’ focus has been inwards as they target the lift in performance that will keep the Bledisloe Cup on this side of the Tasman.

For blockbusting winger Julian Savea, the half-dozen changes in the Wallabies’ starting line-up for the decider in Auckland on Saturday night isn’t something he has been dwelling on.

“It’s about us this week,” he said.

“No matter who they put on, it’s going to be an awesome team. We just have to prepare well for ourselves and do our roles really, really well.”

Savea will be part of an unchanged back three, with fullback Ben Smith and right winger Nehe Milner-Skudder, as the All Blacks look to bounce back from their 27-19 defeat in Sydney.

But the Wallabies have tweaked their outside backs combination, with coach Michael Cheika bringing in Henry Speight for Drew Mitchell on the right wing to partner fullback Israel Folau and Adam Ashley-Cooper.

The Test last weekend was Savea’s first of the year, and he put in a busy performance.

The 25-year-old Hurricane said he hasn’t look back and judged how he went at ANZ Stadium, saying this week was all about the team bouncing back from defeat.

“We’ve been off a little bit and had a speed bump,” he said.

“The boys are hissing to go.”

Savea, who has the impressive strike rate of 30 tries from his 34 Tests, said it wasn’t so much a case of the All Blacks being surprised by the Wallabies seven days ago.

Rather, they paid for being off with their execution.

“We were ready for it,” he said.

“But our skill sets let us down, we turned a lot of ball over and they got us at set piece a little bit.”

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