Gregor Paul: The Wallaby backlash is coming

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika. Photo / Dave Hunt.

The Wallaby backlash is going to come. They can't possibly be as passive in Dunedin as they were in Sydney.

The unknown is the likely format their physicality will take. Presumably they will focus on tackling harder, putting men down in dominant impacts.

Presumably they will be more intent and urgent at the breakdown, compete harder to slow things and and presumably in the general business of collision work, they will be more accurate and confronting.

That much the All Blacks are assuming. What they are also aware of is that the Wallabies may sprinkle their more aggressive stance with a liberal dose of niggle.

That has been their go-to in the past, most memorably in the equivalent game last year which they came into, just as they are this time, on the back of a hiding in Sydney.

Last year in the opening Bledisloe Cup test the Wallabies rolled over and didn't compete physically. They came to New Zealand a week later with a clearly pre-determined plan to unsettle the All Blacks by playing hard off the ball.

It was a test marred by endless jersey pulling, line blocking, verbal spraying and general pettiness. It was a low point in Bledisloe Cup history as while the Wallabies may have been the instigators, the All Blacks got caught up in it all and gave as much as they received.

The All Blacks won, but they weren't happy with the way they were drawn into the Wallabies' agenda: all the mucking around as if they were in the school yard got in the way of either team playing rugby.

If it happened again, the All Blacks vowed to rise above it, deal with it more effectively. Their conviction on that front may well be tested at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

There has been a definite edge about the Wallabies since coach Michael Cheika took over in late 2014. It has become part of their game to linger after contact and look for a bit of push and shove and they up the ante on that when they are under pressure.

The pattern has been that the more the Wallabies feel they need a result, the more likely they are to indulge in a bit of nonsense. And the pressure they are currently under could hardly be greater.

No one in Australia appears to be buying into the final scoreline from last week. The fact the Wallabies salvaged some respectability doesn't change the fact that after 50 minutes, they were 54-6 down.

There is the whole backdrop with the Western Force, the chaos within the Australian Rugby Union, the 26 Super Rugby defeats to New Zealand teams and a general sense of the game being in danger of imploding to heighten the belief that this week could be one that in time, history marks as the point of no return or the test where the Wallabies saved the sport in Australia.

With that in mind, the All Blacks know what might be coming and they know they have to deal with it better if it does.

"I think first of all it is recognising that is what the opposition or an individual might be trying to do," says Sam Cane. "I think the best way of looking at it is to say that if they are running around trying to do those sorts of things it means they are off task in the things they should be focusing on in terms of playing rugby and their roles there.

"As long as you don't let it distract you from doing your role but at the same time, you don't want to put up with any stuff that you shouldn't have to. As long as you can deal with it and it doesn't detract from you doing your job I think you let them how you feel about that rubbish. But if it is affecting you getting to the next breakdown or from being able to make the next tackle, get out of there and be where your mates need you."

The importance of the All Blacks being able to handle any cheap work by the Wallabies extends beyond the context of the Dunedin test.

If there is an increasing area of concern for the All Blacks it is in the way they are not always dealing with problems in real time. Last year they let 80 minutes go by before, in their post match debrief, they recognised that they had been suckered into engaging with the Wallabies in the wrong way.

In the second test against the British & Irish Lions they went into a narrow attacking mode after Sonny Bill Williams was sent off and again, only recognised the failing of that after the test.

It was the same last week in Sydney. They switched off in that final half hour - seduced by the scoreboard was coach Steve Hansen's term - and became self-destructively loose.

That in itself was a worry but the bigger concern is that such a state of affairs lasted for 30 minutes without the leadership group able to regather the troops and reignite the same attacking cohesion that allowed them to be so devastating in the first 50 minutes.

Being able to recognise issues on the field and implement effective action plans became the hallmark of former skipper Richie McCaw's captaincy.

It's not an easy art to develop but it is one the current side need to get better at and they face, perhaps, and the test in Dunedin is the perferct opportunity to make big strides on that front.