Stopping Beauden Barrett is among the Wallabies' priorities as they bid to save face with a hoodoo-busting victory over the All Blacks on Saturday in Auckland.
The scintillating five-eighth has been New Zealand's chief destroyer in the All Blacks' 42-8 and 29-9 routs in the first two Bledisloe Cup stoushes in Sydney and Wellington.
Apart from scoring almost half of the All Blacks' points through a try and nine goals, Barrett has been the architect of the world champions' attack, proving almost impossible to contain at times.
The All Blacks piled on 10 tries in two Tests in locking away the Bledisloe Cup for a 14th straight year and Wallabies defence coach Nathan Grey said nullifying Barrett was key to an upset.
"You certainly want to limit what all their attacking threats can do," Grey said on Thursday.
"Beauden's in pretty rich form at the moment. He's one of the threats we've got to make sure we can control.
"He steers them around exceptionally well. He's got a lot of positive attributes: great speed, good decision-making and he can hurt you if you make errors.
"We're certainly going over there with a clear idea of how we want to play and we've got a pretty good idea on what they can do.
"It's a matter of backing ourselves and putting out a performance we can be very proud of."
Back-rower David Pocock said while the Wallabies must keep close tabs on Barrett, the All Blacks had other dangers across the park.
"He's been outstanding this year, a real threat," Pocock said of the reigning Super Rugby Player of the Year.
"The thing about New Zealand is if you focus too much on someone like Beauden, it opens up gaps for a whole bunch of other attacking players around him.
"From what we've seen this year, it's important to control him but easier said than done and you don't want to put too much focus on one player."
