2-1 series win over an admittedly understrength French side, sneaking over the line by 3 points in the first and third tests to nab the well-earned victory.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s clash at Eden Park, however, senior All Blacks Anton Lienert-Brown and Brodie Retallick both noted that while they might not have been put under quite as much pressure in July as their neighbours, they’ve got plenty of players amongst their ranks who are well versed in close encounters.
“You could say they have an advantage,” stated Lienert-Brown. “They’ve played in close matches and I guess the three games we played weren’t as close but we’ve got a lot of experience in this group and a lot of boys have played big games, and that all counts as well.”
Retallick shared similar thoughts. “Obviously those games went down to the 80th minute, if not a little bit later, you can only mentally prepare for that. This team knows. It’s not new to any of these players, they’ve been there before so we know what’s coming and hopefully we can go out there and do our job and it doesn’t come to [shutting out a game in the dying stages], and we’re in control. Obviously you’ve got to be ready for it, but the plan is to go out there and front-foot it.”
Last year, the opening Bledisloe Cup match ended…
