Rugby: Lions draw haunts All Blacks

Steve Hansen has a slew of variables to consider in planning his line-up to meet the Wallabies on Saturday. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The All Blacks have embraced a drawn series with the British & Irish Lions as a much-needed reality check, which has sent them into overdrive these past two weeks refining skills, honing strategies and touching up their conditioning.

The Lions exposed flaws in the All Blacks and the question that will be answered later this week is whether the coaches believe that all the problems can be fixed by hard work or whether they need to consider personnel changes as part of the overall remedy.

Since Steve Hansen took over as head coach in 2012, he hasn't tended to react to poor performances by making selection changes. Not immediately, anyway, and the philosophy has typically been to let players who didn't deliver have the opportunity to put things right next time.

The most recent chance to put things right was the third test against the Lions. The All Blacks lost the second test and the pressure was on for largely the same team to bounce back and perform well in the decider. They didn't - and the coaching staff would have asked themselves some hard questions.

Did, for instance, the pack have enough attitude and presence? Did they do enough to get the All Blacks over the gain-line when they carried the ball and made their tackles?

The back three will be under scrutiny as the skills under the high ball weren't great in tests two and three and there will be, with Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty both available and fit, a big decision to be made about who starts in the midfield.

What also has to be factored in is the discrepancies in workloads and travel burdens that have been incurred in Super Rugby. The Blues players have been mostly training in Auckland since the middle of July, while the likes of the Crusaders, Hurricanes and Chiefs have been to South Africa for crucial playoff games.

"Selection is never straightforward," said assistant All Blacks coach Ian Foster. "You are weighing up so many different variables. We have had three teams who have travelled to South Africa in the last two or three weeks.

"We have looked at a whole load of things from the Lions series and at the workload and the quick turnaround from the end of the Super Rugby playoffs to this period has meant we have to be really careful about how we measure people to see where they are at.

"We have been looking a lot at the physical and mental energy that you need to come over here and play well in Sydney.

"We know we are going to have to match if not better a hunger level that Australia is going to bring to the park on Saturday so we are after athletes who are determined and fresh both physically and mentally."

What's probably safe to assume is that Ben Smith, who missed most of the Lions series, is likely to return at fullback with Israel Dagg, Waisake Naholo and Rieko Ioane fighting for the wing spots.

Crotty will start in midfield and the expectation is that it will be at centre, with Williams restored to second-five, but the selectors will also consider whether he may be better used off the bench with Anton Lienert-Brown partnering Crotty.

In the forwards, Owen Franks continues to battle an Achilles problem and may struggle to go past halftime, which means one of Ofa Tu'ungafasi or Nepo Laulala are going to be heavily involved. Liam Squire's abrasive tackling and punchy ball-carrying is a good bet to be utilised at some stage in the game.