All Blacks in World Cup mode
New Zealand are already focussed on the bigger picture, the World Cup, but will continue top work hard at winning each Test in the build-up to the global showpiece.
All Black coach Steve Hansen, speaking ahead of his team's opening Rugby Championship encounter with Argentina in Christchurch on Friday, revealed that every outing is part of a carefully orchestrated plan building towards the World Cup in September and October.
Hansen said the All Blacks had "locked into preparations" for the World Cup soon after winning the last one in 2011.
It started with a scratchy 25-16 win over a committed Samoan side in Apia last Wednesday.
It is follow by three Rugby Championship encounters – starting against the Pumas in Christchurch this week, South Africa in Johannesburg and week later and Australia in Sydney on August 8 – before the pre-World Cup build-up is concluded with a second Bledisloe Cup game against the Wallabies in Auckland on August 15.
"Obviously, now that the World Cup's not that far away, it's going to be talked about a lot more than it would be," he told Stuff.co.nz.
"The key thing now is making sure we use these five Test matches to really build our game and make good selection processes.
"As always, we narrow right down to test week.
"We're in a Test week where we've got Argentina at the end of it. We've got to play well."
Hansen said some of the Highlanders and Hurricanes' All Blacks involved in the Super Rugby Final just over a week might have to front against Argentina on Friday.
However, he will also rest some key men ahead of the big encounter with the Springboks the following week.
The squad has been bolstered by 17 players from the Highlanders and Hurricanes, who were given a leave pass for last Wednesday's Test in Samoa.
Hansen was characteristically coy about the composition of his team for Friday's Rugby Championship opener, but he said some of the players involved in the Super Rugby Final "will have to play" against the Pumas.
"But how many, I'm not sure yet. You'll find out on Thursday when I name the team."
Hansen was unfazed at Argentina omitting four regular players, including backline star Juan Martín Hernández, for the Christchurch Test, saying it was a smart move.
The All Blacks play Argentina in their opening pool game at the World Cup tournament in England on September 21, but Hansen said they would not be disadvantaged by not getting to see the rested Argentine quartet this weekend.
"We get plenty of looks at them anyway.
"The ones they are leaving behind are world class players. We know heaps about them.
"I think they're playing it smart, they're giving themselves the opportunity to have a team that's going to the World Cup in really good nick."
Most of the Argentinian players were contracted to English clubs and had just had "a very heavy workload".
Source: Stuff.co.nz
