Peter Lakai on All Blacks' 'soft' defensive moments against France

All Blacks and Hurricanes loose-forward Peter Lakai wasn’t completely satisfied with their two-point triumph over France in Christchurch, pinpointing a couple of areas they can improve on.

Securing a victory over France is no mean feat, though, so Dave Rennie will be pleased with their intent with ball in hand, and the ability to get over the line late in the game.

Lakai, who was replaced by Wallace Sititi during the second half, told media in Christchurch that their first win was progress.

“Yeah, obviously you know few things to work on, but you know we’re happy to start our campaign off over here,” Lakai said.

“Obviously a few things to polish off, and yeah, we’re looking forward to, next week, now.”

On the defensive side of the ball, the versatile loose-forward knows they struggled to limit France’s dangerous attack.

“To an extent, we scored some brilliant tries, but we also let him a few soft ones as well.”

“So, just like I said, it’s just polishing, we’ve been together for a week, so I guess it’s just building combinations, and we’ll take our learnings from this week and hopefully apply them next week.”

“We expected them [France] to play quick, especially around the ruck. The nines jumping out, and they obviously came down the middle, and they scored a few soft tries.

“But we’ll review that come Monday, and hopefully be better.”

The 23-year-old explained that the victory wasn’t a relief, as they achieved their main goal.

“No, I wouldn’t say it’s relief. It’s our first test of the year, we’re obviously going to be a little bit rusty, but you know to come away with the win was the main goal.”

The All Blacks then hit back through Will Jordan, as the home side started to manoeuvre their way back into the game after going down to 14 as Ruben Love was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle.

Back-to-back tries from Hurricanes halfback Cameron Roigard on either side of the break saw the All Blacks storm into the lead, before France proved tough to put away at Te Kaha.

A late Matthieu Jalibert five-pointer close to the posts provided the All Blacks with nervous moments as the final whistle approached, but one-off carries were enough as referee Luke Pearce called time.