All Blacks v France: The challenge facing the All Blacks in second test

Ahead of the All Blacks’ second test against France, assistant coach Scott Hansen outlined the challenge ahead of the side.

“We have to improve, the All Blacks have to improve,” he said.

“Let’s take away that error at the breakdown. Let’s take away the ability for him [the TMO or television match official] to feel he needs to come in. So, our challenge is to give the TMO an enjoyable evening, with a cup of tea, and [if] we’re really clinical and we’re executing well, he can enjoy his evening.”

His comments came after TMO intervention became a point of contention in the first test, a 31-27 All Blacks win, in Dunedin, as the side had three tries disallowed after the man upstairs intervened.

The decisions – two handling errors and an obstruction – caused frustrating delays in play.

But it wasn’t just in their execution with ball in hand that Hansen said needed to be better, but their work defensively too.

Hansen admitted the All Blacks were disappointed to have conceded 27 points, with the French managing to break the line on a number of occasions while also giving their hosts a bit of trouble from contestable kicks.

“What we’ve acknowledged is we could have been in front of the French a wee bit quicker, and a wee bit more aggressive,” he said.

“Defence will be a massive part of this. We’re not overly happy with the amount of points scored against us. There’s a little bit in the gut about that, so we need to be better.”

After the French had been widely discounted by fans and pundits, given several of their first-choice players were not selected for the tour, the visitors impressed with their performance.

Fullback Theo Attissogbe and left wing Gabin Villiere were particularly strong, while their loose trio also played well.

While they will likely be buoyed by their performance in the first test of the series, Hansen said the French were already a confident side and did not expect last week’s contest to change anything about that.

The All Blacks will be without captain Scott Barrett (calf) and winger Sevu Reece (concussion) for the contest, which gave the coaching staff a little bit more to consider ahead of matchday squad selection.

“They’re young, they’re excited. They’ve talked about having no fear, so whether or not they took confidence out of that, that’s for them to decide. What we saw was an excited, inexperienced French team that were proud to play for their country.

“But what we’ve also been through, and the excitement of the series, is we get to play them again. Both teams will be looking at this game going ‘there’s opportunities we can see now that we didn’t know were there last time. We can build our game, we can get better’.

“As coaching staffs, we’ll be both feeling that there’s confidence around where we can transfer our game, but we’ll be better for the game also.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.