All Blacks: McCaw, Cane may signal open war

Weak spot needs attention, and fast, and dynamic duo might be the men to repair the problem.

The All Blacks may bring their own double threat to the breakdown at Eden Park and start with Richie McCaw and Sam Cane. If they do, it wouldn't signal any longer-term change in thinking: more a case of making a specific change to fast track sorting a specific problem.

The All Blacks, by their own admission, have been cleaned up at the breakdown in their past two tests. They can't allow it to become three in a row.

Not when their game is entirely dependent on recycling quickly and building pressure by holding the ball through multiple phases.

If New Zealand come second at the breakdown on Saturday it's probable they will come second on the scoreboard. What's become apparent throughout the Rugby Championship is that the key battleground in test football has shifted from the set-piece to the tackled ball.

South Africa played twin fetchers Heinrich Brussow and Marcel Coetzee who combined superbly with hooker Bismarck du Plessis to be frustratingly strong over the ball at Ellis Park.

And in Sydney, Michael Hooper and David Pocock were able to steal and disrupt possession too often. The Opta statistics show du Plessis and Pocock as the top stealers in the Rugby Championship with six turnovers; followed by Hooper with five and Kieran Read with four.

Selecting Cane with McCaw won't be a panacea to the All Blacks' issues in this area. Their bigger ball carriers will have to be more dominant in the contact. They need to run more direct lines and make better decisions when to or even if to pass to support runners.

But if Cane plays, he'll give the All Blacks a good decision-maker in the contact area. He'll be quick to get over the tackled player in attack and defence and is likely to have a strong influence in ensuring the All Blacks are more secure and more competitive at the breakdown.

"There has been a lot of talk about the breakdown and we lost the breakdown as such as a battle [in Sydney]," says All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster. "But the breakdown is a whole lot of things. It is about where we attack, the role of our ball carrier; the role of our cleaners. It is not just a seven versus a seven.

"We did some good things and when we got some of those things right we actually created good opportunity but weren't clinical in taking them. But the times we didn't get our ball carrying right or made some poor decisions, or we didn't respond to what they were doing in defence, we really struggled in that facet. We are trying to understand our game to clear things up and then make people accountable for the simple stuff: like how do you ball carry, how do you clean out and how quickly you get there."

It's unlikely the All Blacks will see a twin openside policy as a permanent option but it will be given due consideration for this test given the pressing need to improve at the breakdown and nullify the influence of Hooper and Pocock. Also, given the coaches' desire to give all 41 players a reasonable chance to play their way into the World Cup squad, Cane is presumably due a decent run given he's only had seven minutes off the bench - against Australia - so far.