All Blacks captain Scott Barrett believes his team are only now beginning to realise the vision of new coach Scott Robertson 12 games into his tenure.
Since losing three of their first four Rugby Championship fixtures under Robertson, New Zealand have now quietly compiled a five-game winning streak against Australia (twice), Japan, England and former world No.1 Ireland, with a shot at recapturing the top ranking from South Africa this weekend.
Their win over the Irish broke an 18-game winning home record for their hosts and further muted the trashtalk from a team that felt they had achieved dominance, after 111 years of futility.
Victory over France on Sunday (NZT) would surpass most expectations of the 'Razor' Blacks on this northern tour and Barrett insists there's more to come.
The skipper believes his team are starting to realise their potentil. (Source: 1News)
"We're starting to see the impact of what he's trying to create over the past couple of months," said the skipper, who shared in Robertson's triumphant march through Super Rugby and was elevated to All Blacks leadership this year.
"This group is really starting to gel. We've got some youth that are really starting to put their hand up in the Test arena, so we're hoping to continue that tomorrow night.
"If I reflect on what I hoped would be a successful tour at the start, it would be improving and getting better each week. We certainly have to be better this week, coming up against a French team that have challenged us in recent years."
In fact, the French have won the last two encounters — both at Stade de France — the most recent coming in Rugby World Cup poolplay last year.
Looming large behind their forwards is the figure of halfback Antoine Dupont, returning from his gold-medal turn at the Paris Olympics sevens.
"It's a big pack, a pack that wants to go at you, and they've got some classy guys behind that can certainly punish you," said Barrett. "If they have frontfoot ball and the ball's on a plate for Antoine, we've seen how classy he can be.
"On the flipside of that, if we can keep the ball out of his hands or at least give him messy ball, that would go a long way for us in terms of the result. If we present opportunities, he's going to take them, so our defence has to be really solid around the ruck and that's typically the tight five.
"That's been right at the forefront of our preparation this week."
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