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All Blacks to fix second-half fade

The All Blacks' second-half performance in their 54-34 win in Sydney is an area they want to fix in the second Bledisloe Cup rugby Test in Dunedin.

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Source: AAP


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The All Blacks are determined there will be no late face-saving opportunity for the Wallabies if they can build another big lead in Saturday's second Bledisloe Cup Test.

Eyeing the chance to lock away the prized trophy for yet another year at Dunedin's roofed stadium, the All Blacks have been focusing on their failings in the last half hour of last weekend's of 54-34 win in Sydney.

When wing Ben Smith scored New Zealand's eighth try on 47 minutes, a huge blow-out had been on the cards.

But the Wallabies, down 54-6, roared back with four unanswered tries in 17 minutes.

All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster says it's obvious what went wrong.

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"We knocked off and lost a real mental edge about how we executed and how we need to execute and the fact is that it showed in both parts of our game," said Foster.

"We let in four tries, but some of that was just poor attack - poor decisions in attack rather than anything else."

"It's an 80-minute game. We've always taken a lot of pride in doing that and we didn't do it in Sydney."

Foster noted that it was something that also happened in the British and Irish Lions series this year.

The All Blacks won the first Test against the Lions, but then dropped late leads in losing the second Test and in drawing the decider.

"When you look through our games, I don't think we've won the won the last quarter for the last two to three Tests," he said.

He was reluctant to lay blame with the bench players, saying it was about the whole team that was on the pitch during the last quarter.

"In Sydney, we were seeing execution mistakes from some players that had been on the field the whole time," he said.

"It's not just a matter of looking at the guys who are running off."

It could have been a case of players trying too hard rather than trusting what they were doing and getting back to a few simple things.

"We're playing around with it," Foster said.

"We want to get it right and clearly it wasn't right in Sydney."


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