Breakdown And Lineout Concerns For Hansen

…Steve Hansen…

All Blacks forwards coach Steve Hansen knows exactly what to work his players on ahead of next Saturday’s second Test against Ireland – the breakdown and the lineout.

They were two key areas where Ireland were on top in for much of last weekend’s 34-23 win for New Zealand in Hamilton. Hansen had his gut feelings confirmed on analysing the first Test video on Monday.

The former Wales coach said: “I thought we were pretty ordinary at lineout time, very good at scrum time.

“We allowed ourselves to be slowed down at the breakdown therefore creating timing issues (for us). We probably played a little too deep in the backline.”

An untimely power cut hit much of Auckland on Monday, forcing the All Blacks to move their training session from the Waitakere Stadium to a gymnasium where at least some lineout issues could be ironed out.

Hansen said of the breakdown: “We’ve got to stay on our feet for longer. We just allowed (Brian) O’Driscoll and (Gordon) D’Arcy to be second tacklers and to go straight onto the ball, then they got banged off their feet and all over the ball.

“The referee has got to give them time to roll away which he did do, but every second counts. If you want to destabilise a backline or a defensive line, the sooner you can get the ball back in the air the better.”

The All Blacks’ lineout woes are something that needs to be looked at from club level upwards, according to Hansen.

He explained: “The lineout – it’s something that we need (to work on) as a nation, not just the All Blacks.

“If we look at the Super 14 and our Air New Zealand Cup teams, they’ve got to get better at it too. It’s an evolution that needs to happen in our game.

“For a long, long time we’ve just allowed people to go up for their ball. Slowly but surely that is changing but as we know, the Irish are very good lineout operators.”

Centre Ma’a Nonu, who is nursing a knee injury, was the only player not to train with the rest of the Kiwi squad on Monday. He is expected to be replaced for the second Test by exciting Crusaders talent Casey Laulala, who admitted he would be “downhearted” if he did not win his second cap on Saturday. The Samoan-born midfielder’s previous Test appearance was against Wales in Cardiff in November 2004.