\u201cKey focus this week is probably just around our set piece. That was a main thing that came out of the RGR [Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry] and something that us forwards are working really hard on to perfect come weekend.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI guess the big three were the set piece, winning the air and just being clinical, especially when we get down there in the 22 and pretty much score points, those are probably the big three. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnother point that kind of hurt us in that RGR, was just those dumb penalties that we\u2019ve given away. I can remember, I gave a stupid one there from memory.<\/a> I guess as soon as we can get that out of our game, then we can obviously apply pressure. <\/p>\n The versatile Vaa\u2019i played in every minute of the four tests against South Africa<\/a>, starting two tests at lock and two on the side of the scrum. He said the break from the game was much needed.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery rugby player needs it. You can\u2019t be full on rugby, rugby, rugby. And we\u2019ve seen it with the first day we\u2019ve come in, like the boys are energised, they look like they enjoyed their break weeks. Some boys have gone back to play NPC and it\u2019s been awesome just to go back and reconnect with loved ones that didn\u2019t make the trip over.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI obviously can adjust pretty good whether it\u2019s six or four or five on my back. I guess it\u2019s just more trying to continue to play my game, especially doesn\u2019t matter what number\u2019s on my back, just continue to play my game. That\u2019s probably the only thing that I can think of. <\/p>\n He\u2019ll have support in both lock and the loose forwards with veterans Scott Barrett and Shannon Frizell back to the squad<\/a> in much-needed returns with the likes of Ardie Savea, Luke Jacobson and Patrick Tuipulotu out of at least the next two tests.<\/p>\n Vaa\u2019i has played the Wallabies on nine occasions, having tasted defeat just once back in 2020. But the All Blacks are coming off three straight defeats to the Springboks<\/a> and are facing an Australian side who just beat the World No 1 side<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we\u2019re desperate, but I think we know what\u2019s on the line. Bledisloe Cup, a trophy that means so much to both nations. We\u2019re the people that have got it at the moment, but we\u2019re still going to go out there and try and win it again.\u201d <\/p>\n Listen to Elliott Smith\u2019s live commentary on Newstalk ZB Sport and iHeartRadio, or join the Alternative Commentary Collective on iHeartRadio and Radio Hauraki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cKey focus this week is probably just around our set piece. That was a main thing that came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[251216,5263,1975,8136,8142,2082,85429,111,139,69,8143,1534,306155,213,8225,765,34432],"class_list":["post-622082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-705pm","tag-all","tag-at","tag-blacks","tag-eden","tag-for","tag-improvements","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-park","tag-saturday","tag-setpiece","tag-sports","tag-target","tag-test","tag-wallabies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}