All Blacks: Don't expect World Cup hints in Jo'burg

Ben Smith fends off South Africa's Victor Matfield during last year's Rugby Championship encounter.

Look out for the dirty tricks brigade at Ellis Park on Sunday morning. What you see is unlikely to be what you are going to get.

Now you might see it, and now you don't in a World Cup year. Only the coaches will know the extent to which they are NOT putting everything on show. Preparing for a World Cup involves hiding tactics in plain sight. No team will throw the kitchen sink at a lead up test strategy wise.

Lineout drives are the topic of the week, but the game could be a different story. The two rugby powerhouses might even chuck in a few dummy moves to throw their big World Cup opponents off the scent. Even the selections will be clouded in World Cup subterfuge.

This is not just a tactic reserved for the highest echelons. I've heard of Super Rugby teams using dummy tactics in pre-season games. This being a World Cup year, we're still in the pre-season. In the long run, no one will care what happens this Sunday like most people can hardly recall what happened in the first half of 2011. Stephen Donald's ill-fitting jersey is more famous than the standard issue 2011 tests.

Getting combinations and cohesion to optimum level is vital, but revealing exactly what you will do with that unity is another matter.

Many are picking a lineout drive onslaught from South Africa. Even if the 'Boks turn the heat on the All Blacks lineout, they are unlikely to fully show their hand, instead keeping plenty of powder dry for the Webb Ellis Cup tournament. They may have a few dabs, and then put it away. Come a World Cup showdown, they could spend much of the game trying to engage the All Black lineout.

There is no team in international rugby like the All Blacks in regarding winning every test as vital. Try as we might to see a bigger picture, the New Zealand public regards winning every test as a right. All Black fans might say something different before a test match, but following a loss all hell can break loose. Expectations have been built up, habits die hard.

The team has a culture of winning they can't ignore. No other team - not even South Africa - views it quite the same way. But even the All Blacks won't sacrifice World Cup glory for the sake of victory in a test like this.

The All Blacks are clearly smarting after the Argentina test because their lineout defence was so abysmal on two occasions against the muscular Pumas. Getting dealt to by an opposing pack hurts the pride. Lock Brodie Retallick told the press pack in Johannesburg it was obvious what a training emphasis would involve this week.

"We need to stop them getting the forward momentum," said Retallick.

"Argentina rolled around in front of us - we didn't adapt. If we can hit it, get it moving backwards while keeping it square, hopefully they've got no option but to play the ball from the back of the maul.

"It is something we've got to adapt to on the run, which is not easy to do. Teams like the Brumbies or Argentina who can do it well...it's pretty hard to stop."

Assistant coach Ian Foster was open about being evasive when it came to midfield selections. There are a lot of options, he said, but we all know that. Foster said the rash of offloads against Argentina would not necessarily continue, that the All Blacks wanted to tighten up that area without inhibiting the players. The offloads would only come if the platform was laid.

If there was one thing that could be taken away from this press conference it is that the selectors are impressed with the comeback of Tawera Kerr-Barlow, who has been playing for New Zealand Maori. By the sounds of it, Chiefs No. 9 Kerr-Barlow - sidelined for most of this season - is firming as the third World Cup halfback ahead of underwhelming journeyman Andy Ellis. Or is he?