All Blacks captain Sam Cane is expecting a "brutal" challenge from the Wallabies in Melbourne on Thursday night.
After his team’s captain’s run today, Cane told the media the Wallabies wouldn’t lack for confidence in the key Bledisloe Cup clash – an All Blacks win would see them extend their reign with the old trophy to 20 years – and that they would be gunning for the visitors.
“The thing about the Aussies is that it doesn’t matter what’s going on – they’ve always got plenty of confidence in themselves and their ability and they’ve shown time and again how they can front up,” Cane said.
“There have been some absolute classic matches in the time that I’ve been involved where games go right down to the wire. I expect the intensity to be right up there tomorrow night from the outset. I think it will be a brutal encounter.”
Cane said the Australian loose forward trio of Pete Samu, Rob Valetini and Rob Leota, who all represent the Melbourne Rebels, would seek to pressure the All Blacks at the tackle and breakdown areas and it was up to his side to counter that.
“They’ve got a very good forward pack,” Cane said. “They have had a lot of success with their driving maul. Yeah, when they get humming they can score points quickly so we’ve done a lot of work on them. Plenty of focus on ourselves as always … but we feel like we’ve done a lot of prep.”
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Cane hoped his side's thorough preparation this week would counter the All Blacks’ inconsistencies, and felt Scott Barrett’s move to blindside flanker after the return of Brodie Retallick to lock would strengthen his team’s pack.
“I think Scooter has done a really good job at 6 … and it makes sense to have the big man Brodie back - he loves these encounters and then Hoskins [Sotutu] has been patiently waiting for his opportunity… he’s been training the house down.
“We’ve been gradually improving over the last four Tests. Even the loss to Argie – we got a lot of areas right, we just didn’t get the scoreboard right. We’ve been putting in the work.
“There’s a huge desire and hunger to put in another performance.”
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