Rugby: All Blacks veteran Jerome Kaino changes tackle focus after two yellow cards

All Blacks loose forward Jerome Kaino during the All Blacks training session, held at North Sydney Oval, Sydney, in preparation for the Bledisloe Cup. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

A yellow card for a high tackle in the third test against the British and Irish Lions and one in his very next match for the Blues against the Sunwolves have forced Jerome Kaino, one of the hardest hitters in the game, to change how he defends.

Both sin-binnings were costly and that has added to the gravity of what Kaino has admitted is a trend.

The All Blacks were leading the Lions 12-9 at Eden Park in July when Kaino was shown a yellow card for his high tackle on lock Alun Wyn Jones early in the second half and the test finished in a 15-all draw.

Against the Sunwolves in Tokyo a week later, Kaino again was given 10 minutes on the sideline in the second half as his side crumbled to a shock 48-21 defeat, and there was no sidestepping the issue for the 34-year-old loose forward.

"I definitely have to address it," he told the Herald.

"I have to try to adapt to how the games are being officiated now. We could throw our hands up and say they are marginal calls but it's the way the game is going now and anything close to the head is going to be ruled on.

"That's where I have to evolve and change my tackling technique. We're well under way with that. I've been trying to lower my tackle focus.

"I'm definitely aware it wasn't a one-off. Getting two yellow cards is a trend and so I have to take it on myself to change."

Neither of Kaino's hits was intentionally high but both made contact with his opponent's head and under World Rugby's new directives this year, the decisions by the officials were relatively straightforward.

Kaino was unlucky to strike Jones as the Lions lock ducked his head into the tackle, but there was no such excuse for the flanker striking the head of Sunwolves centre Willy Tupou for the second one.

"When you don't intend for things to happen and you have to spend time away when your teams are doing the hard yards without you [it's difficult], but we know the rules," he said.

Kaino's front-on defence around the breakdown has been notoriously aggressive since before the 2011 World Cup, a tournament in which he played all but a couple of minutes for the All Blacks.

He was in devastating form again four years later in England and Wales and since then, but now he has no choice but to amend his technique.

Kaino, who made his All Black debut back in 2004, is the longest serving player in the team and is one of the few who can remember when winning the Bledisloe Cup was a novelty.

The All Blacks have held what they regard as their second most important piece of silverware after the World Cup since 2003.

"I remember meetings when guys in the environment who had never really had the trophy," Kaino said.

"I was lucky to come into the environment when we had just won it back. You got to see the appreciation and how treasured the trophy was.

"I saw guys like Justin Marshall and Anton Oliver, how they really appreciated being able to touch the trophy. They'd talk about times when they tried to take it off Australia and couldn't."