5. Robertson wants improvement from the England series
England’s blitz defence caused New Zealand plenty of problems in last month’s series and the All Blacks will want to improve their set-pieces, especially as Maro Itoje caused the home pack no end of grief at the line-out.
Robertson has opted for the physical presence of Anton Lienert-Brown over the pace of Reiko Ioane in the centre.The All Blacks head coach wants to see his side build on the strong defence shown so far this season, but also finish chances they create, having let a few early opportunities slip in both games against England.
“Defensively, we have been really pleased with the stats and tackle outcomes which have given us opportunities to win games, to grow our ability with the ball,” he said.
“We had a lot of opportunities early, which we didn’t execute and got into an arm wrestle, so the games got close,” he added about the England series.
“There has been a focus to execute but keep trust in our skills, to still be courageous. Now we want to play it two or three different ways, depending on who is in front of us and the weather.”