All Blacks’ breakdown woes

New Zealand coach Steve Hansen has urged his side to be more clinical at the breakdown ahead of their Test against Australia in Auckland.

The All Blacks struggled to adapt to Jaco Peyper's refereeing of the breakdown on Saturday, with Wyatt Crockett and Beauden Barrett both seeing yellow for offences committed there.

Their dismissals came at vital points in the game, just before half-time and with 10 minutes to go, and allowed the Wallabies to shift the momentum in their favour.

Speaking at the team hotel following the match, Hansen admitted his side needed to revisit their work at the breakdown this week.

'If we're not getting continuity and the referee's penalising you, it's difficult to get a dominant platform,' he said. 'So we've got to go away and look at some of that stuff, work out if we were in the wrong and, if we were in the right, work out what we were doing to make him think we were in the wrong. But there's no point in losing sleep over it because you're playing sport and some days you're not going to get the result you want.

'You've got to be a big boy, take it on the chin and move on.'

The All Blacks will host their trans-Tasman rivals at fortress Eden Park this week, a ground where they have won their last 32 matches. Ma'a Nonu and Jerome Kaino are injury doubts for the match in Auckland, with both scheduled to undergo scans on Monday.

While Hansen looks likely to suffer a blow in his midfield, he should be able to call on Conrad Smith this weekend, despite the Hurricanes centre still awaiting the birth of his first child.

'I'm sure we'll get Conrad back at some stage this week … things seem to be progressing OK there,' said Hansen.

Photo: Matt King/Getty Images