All Blacks look to fix key issues

The All Blacks scrum has been labelled as an area to fix for next weekend. Photo / Getty

Basic errors, another poor night at the breakdown and a strangely under powered scrum were quickly labelled by the All Blacks as their key issues to fix for this week's return Eden Park clash.

No dispute there. They were clearly guilty of turning over too much ball; of throwing too many passes that were never likely to land in someone's hands.

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The breakdown was again an area of concern - as it was at Ellis Park - but while the outcome was mostly similar, the reasons for being second best were different. "We certainly turned over the ball the same," said All Black captain Richie McCaw.

"I thought the reason in the previous game was we didn't have enough people there [at the tackled ball]. Tonight we had people there but we didn't get the job done. It was pretty frustrating You turn the ball over and that is obviously a chance for the pressure to be released.

"But it is not a real complicated thing to fix. We have just got to make sure we do fix it."

The thing about the tackled ball area is that there are multiple facets that can affect it.

The All Blacks talked all week about the need for ball carriers to be dominant in the collision to ensure good body position at the presentation.

They talked about the need to be going forward and playing in front of the gainline. But too often they did neither as they looked to push the ball wide quickly.

They looked frantic and unsettled while they pursued that policy and too often ball carriers were hit as they scrambled to collect poor passes or pounce or recover loose ball. It was impossible for the All Blacks to exert the pressure and control they needed while they tried to play like that.

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"Most of the night we struggled with our execution and when it got tight we made some really poor decisions with it," said All Black coach Steve Hansen. "Pressure can create errors, so we did get some of that from Australia but I think some of that was forced upon us by our own decision making when we weren't under pressure.

"That put us on the back foot and Australia were good enough to steam over the top of us."

Those words haven't been said by an All Black coach since August 2011 when the Wallabies last beat New Zealand. In many ways, last night's test was similar: an out of sorts All Black team failed to get going and looked to be lacking in many areas just a few weeks before the World Cup.

Four years ago, that proved to be a good lesson for the All Blacks. It was a performance that forced them to deeply examine their selections and attitude ahead of the tournament.

Hansen, who was part of the coaching set up, feels the defeat in Sydney will be much the same.

"I think back to 2011 and we had an off day or night in Brisbane and it was something that we learned from and we need to learn from this one," he said.

"We need to bottle up the hurt and you make it work for you. It will build resolve.

"We have been here before. We have lost games before and it doesn't mean to say that all of a sudden we have become a bad side there are just some things in our game that we need to tidy up. We will get back to Auckland and start that process."