The All Blacks have made preparations to try to shackle the twin attacking threat posed by the Wallabies’ reunited scrum base partnership of Quade Cooper and Will Genia.

Cooper has been restored as five-eighth for the second Bledisloe Cup rugby Test in Auckland on Saturday night, a match Australia have to win to keep the series alive.

All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith says it isn’t possible to nullify everything the pair do.

It’s about “minimising the opportunities for them to be brilliant”, he said.

“To have two of those guys in the inside channels threatening around our big boys and around our ruck defence is definitely a bit of a worry,” he said.

“But we’re preparing for that and we just have to make sure our structures are right.”

Smith, 23, made his Test debut in the home series against Ireland in June.

So the All Blacks’ 27-19 win over the Wallabies in Sydney last Saturday was the first time he went head-to-head at international level with Genia, regarded by many as the best halfback in the business.

“I’ll be watching him like a hawk again,” he said.

“The one break he got, I was at the bottom of the ruck, so I was gutted.”

One area the All Blacks want to rectify is the quality of ball the lineout jumpers delivered to Smith, who put his hand up to take some of the blame.

“It was just mis-communication and a little bit of rust at times,” he said.

“If we can get those little two per cent plays right, then it just flows and it’s something you never usually notice.”

While Australia will start outsiders, Smith warned against writing them off.

His experience of watching previous trans-Tasman clashes is that the Wallabies always bounce back when their backs are against the wall.

“We’re definitely worried about the threats they hold,” he said.

“They’re similar to us. Last week they were only a couple of steps off being awesome. They were only a couple of slipped passes off getting a couple of tries.”