KEY POINTS:
Set-piece guru Mike Cron's greatest satisfaction on tour is the continued improvement in the All Black test scrum. But his judgment will not be complete until this weekend at Twickenham against an England pack which looms as the largest they will face on this Grand Slam quest.
"We
are coming to the boil rather than levelling off and that is great," he said. "We are improving and very enthusiastic and I hope that bodes well for this last test."
Cron said the repeat selections since Ireland had helped that progression and he was rapt with the way they went about their work against Wales.
"I really liked that. They were working like a hand in the glove and I think they really sucked the goodies out of Wales. That was a really huge influence for that opening 20 minutes in the second half when our work took the legs out of them.
"Wales then became slower and less effective at cleanouts in other parts of the field and all that psychology adds up," he said. "The pack's scrum work was a big factor as they sucked the energy out of the opposition."
Cron is a tough taskmaster. He is always talking about "work-ons", areas to tidy up. There have been changes to remedy with Carl Hayman not available this year, Greg Somerville leaving after the Tri-Nations and a tour-ending injury to Andrew Hore.
During the season there had been a tighthead concession to the Wallabies, several communication flaws in the last few weeks between the shove and Jimmy Cowan's delivery, and some issues at the back of the scrum.
"Satisfactory only" was Cron's judgment on the season standard, though you got the feeling he was deliberately downplaying the progress before the Grand Slam decider against England.
Most of the analysis had been done on England and how the All Blacks would gear their scrum on the locals' ball and how they would calibrate their defence from the set piece.
The rest of the time would be about fine-tuning the All Black strategies, making sure they raised their game a notch again from what they delivered against Wales.
The reintroduction of Keven Mealamu had altered some of the dynamics but there was little change to the scrummaging template.
Cron was complimentary about Neemia Tialata's tighthead performance in Cardiff. "He had been crook all week [flu] and I thought he was world-class at tighthead," Cron said. "He has played before on both sides of the scrum but with Hayman and Somerville not here he has had big shoes to fill. John Afoa is also coming to his game and showing what a great sub he is."
The changes this year had brought some fluctuations in standard because it took frontrowers some time to gel and understand new combinations. But they were setting solid standards in their primary role of supplying strong possession.
New tourists Jamie Mackintosh and Ben Franks were showing the benefits of daily training and absorbing the lessons they were getting from their team-mates and opponents.
He felt Mackintosh would benefit if he got an extended run at loosehead prop for the Highlanders. He was mobile, had a great workrate and would be all the better for his twin appearances against Scotland and Munster.
