Sept 2 (Reuters) – Not content with crushing Australia to
retain the Bledisloe Cup, New Zealand will be looking to sharpen
their attack even further against Argentina next weekend.
Having beaten the Wallabies 27-19 and 22-0 to open their
Rugby Championship campaign over the past two weeks, All Blacks
coach Steve Hansen wants more ruthlessness from his side.
“I’d like to put quite a bit of polish on it,” Hansen told
reporters. “I wasn’t that happy with our last performance.
“We played with great intensity and great purpose but we
weren’t very accurate and we need to be a lot more accurate if
we want to be happy with our performance.”
The world champion All Blacks, who coughed up several
try-scoring chances against Australia, are at full strength for
the clash against the Pumas in Wellington on Saturday.
New Zealand beat Argentina 33-10 in the quarter-finals of
last year’s World Cup but the scoreline slightly flattered the
tournament winners who were troubled early on.
“I think they’re coming here to try and win this game as
they did in the quarter-final,” said Hansen. “They were bitterly
disappointed at the end of that.
“They clearly thought they could win and we’ll be expecting
them to come out and try and win the game. We will be doing our
utmost to make sure we win.”
Argentina opened the Rugby Championship with a 27-6 loss to
South Africa in Cape Town before holding the Springboks 16-16 in
a forward dominated contest in Mendoza last weekend.
Continued…
