All Blacks locked on Bledisloe Cup retention after 'honest' conversations
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By Ian Ransom
New Zealand's mission to retain the Bledisloe Cup against Australia has helped the All Blacks move on from the pain of their record defeat to South Africa, assistant coach Jason Holland said on Tuesday.
The All Blacks have held the trans-Tasman trophy since 2003 and can lock it away for a 23rd successive year with victory over the Wallabies in the Rugby Championship clash at Eden Park on Saturday.
Ten days after the 43-10 setback against the Springboks in Wellington, Holland had few concerns about players "dropping heads" following the nation's heaviest defeat in test rugby.
"Obviously the boys hurt massively during the last week," he told reporters in Auckland on Tuesday.
"A lot of those boys have been around a long time and they're pretty clear with everyone around what the Bledisloe means.
"It's massive for the crew, it's massive for us and getting solutions quickly has enabled us to have real confidence in what we're going to do this week."
Australia lead the Rugby Championship on 11 points, one ahead of second-placed South Africa and third-placed New Zealand with two rounds to play.
As attack coach under Scott Robertson, Holland's work is under scrutiny following the All Blacks' series of second-half fade-outs.
They were held scoreless after the break in Wellington a week after managing 10 points after half-time in the 24-17 win over the Springboks at Eden Park.
The Wallabies, by contrast, have made slow starts then racked up late tries in both the 28-24 win over Argentina in Townsville and the 28-26 loss to the Pumas in Sydney.
Holland said one of the All Blacks' top priorities was finding a better balance between their kicking and running games, after giving up too much possession with the boot against the Springboks.
After recovering from a foot injury, Robertson's preferred scrumhalf Cameron Roigard could help with striking that balance.
Roigard has been sidelined for the entire Rugby Championship but was part of an exhaustive review of the Wellington wipe-out when the team assembled in Auckland over the weekend.
"There was a bit of edge about the review, some real honest conversations talking about standards and expectations (and) around where we went wrong," the 24-year-old told reporters.
"It wasn't a short, sharp review, there was lots of layers to it.
"We have a lot of pride in what we do and we want to always perform to make New Zealand proud."
