Steve Hansen weighs in on the All Blacks' Bledisloe demolition job

Sir Steve Hansen says the Wallabies won’t be far off the pace should they adjust their game plan for the second Test in the Bledisloe Cup series after getting “one good smack in the face” in Auckland.

According to Hansen, the key to New Zealand’s winning performance was a steep improvement in a number of key areas from Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry. The much-discussed high ball contest and maul defence were projected to be areas in which Australia had the potential to get an upper hand in the match, but Dave Rennie and his coaching staff had other ideas.

After 80 minutes of running rugby, New Zealand’s 50 points were the most they have scored all season, except in a non-Test match against the Sharks in Durban. Hansen was impressed by the sweeping improvements.

“We talked a lot beforehand about how the All Blacks would have to improve their high ball catch. They did that,” the 2015 Rugby World Cup-winning coach said on the Rugby Unity podcast. “Australia clearly went into the game with that as a target and a tactic, and straight away that bounced back at them because New Zealand tidied that up – I think they only lost one, so that was good improvement.

“We’ve been talking about that for a while. It’ll take a bit for them to get to where they want to get to, but when they get there, someone’s going to get punished.

“We talked about their maul defence, and that improved. And early on, I think Australia turned away points to go for that driving maul, so that shut them out.

“We talked about their lineout having to improve, and that didn’t happen until halftime. But they got there eventually. Australia still had the wood on them there, so a bit of work to do there.

“Their attack was good, and their breakdown was very good. They knew that Australia would be very, very strong over the ball. So they made sure they had people there supporting the ball carry. The ball carrier wasn’t going to ground too early.

“So they did those things really, really well around the areas that we thought Australia would attack them in, and that shut the door on Australia; they just didn’t seem to have plan B.

“And then the speed of the game, I thought both teams played the game at a hell of a speed, and eventually, they just ran out of steam, Australia, and it became too easy for the All Blacks to score points.”

Hansen said it shouldn’t surprise to see the world’s second-ranked team dispatch the seventh-ranked side, even if confidence in the Wallabies’ prospects rose after a win over the Springboks. The coach added that after “one good smack in the face” he expected Australia to come back better in this weekend’s Sydney sequel, with potential for New Zealand to “drop off a little bit if they don’t turn up with the right attitude”.

“They’ll be scratching their heads a wee bit and thinking, shit, we’ve got some of the strategies wrong,” Hansen said of Les Kiss’ squad. “Let’s see what they come up with this week, because if they get them right, then I don’t think they’re that far away.”