The All Blacks are still coming to grips with a new game plan designed to make them more unpredictable.
Coach Steve Hansen says it is taking time to bed in the new attacking methods, partly attributing the unconvincing nature of their 24-9 win over France in the third Test at New Plymouth to players overloaded with information.
However, he says it is important to persist with the restructure, as it will pay off in the long term.
“We’re confident we’re on the right road. We don’t think it’s a dead-ender – we think it’s an open highway and, as the year goes on, we’ll look to get it better and better.”
Hansen is reluctant to unveil too many details of the new game plan other than that it involves opening up new attacking options off ruck ball.
He says the world champions became too predictable last year.
They were unbeaten until a 38-21 thrashing by England at Twickenham forced a re-think.
“The more things you ask a group to do, the longer it takes to bed in because you’ve got more roles to do,” Hansen said.
“But there’s some clear and obvious things that we need to do to make it better.”
One player to struggle with the structure was five-eighth Dan Carter, who was below his best in his first Test since the Twickenham loss after recovering from a hand injury.
Hansen says 95-Test veteran Carter suffered the same teething problems as Aaron Cruden in the first Test against France in Auckland. He found his feet in New Zealand’s dominant 30-point win in the second Test.
“Someone like Dezzy (Carter), who hasn’t played in the system, clearly he’s going to be a little bit rusty.
“He’d like to have another Test match next week to have another go at it. As we saw with Cruds, it takes a bit of time to get into the saddle.”
Captain Kieran Read identified another, less complex reason for the All Blacks’ sub-par display in New Plymouth.
Read says they simply lacked the passion of the French through the first 20 minutes, which was disappointing as team management had demanded a strong follow-up on the Christchurch performance.
