All Blacks: Performance not good enough says Hansen

(L-R) All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen and All Blacks outside back George Moala talk to media. Photo / Brett Phibbs.

At the end of what has been for the Samoan people a fairytale visit to their country by the All Blacks, coach Steve Hansen delivered a message to his team which was heavy on realism.

The All Blacks, he said today before the team's departure, need to improve significantly on a test performance against Manu Samoa which he described as scrappy but thoroughly worthwhile.

A baseline has been set, and with only four tests to go until their World Cup defence, there is a long way to go until the required level is met.

"We badly needed the game and what we got from a scrappiness point of view was what we thought we'd get," Hansen said.

"We were probably hoping for a little bit less scrappiness but part of that extra bit was because of the performance of the Samoans; I thought they played pretty well. From that perspective we had a lot of guys put under pressure and some guys coped with it and some guys didn't."

After the 25-16 victory, first-five Dan Carter said one of the most disappointing factors was the All Blacks' inability to retain the ball and build pressure - two things which go hand in hand and which his side are generally very good at.

And, while there were mitigating factors, it's unlikely they will be used as excuses during the build-up to next week's test against Argentina in Christchurch.

"It wasn't as good a performance as we were hoping for, there's no doubt abut that but I think there's a number of factors - a big lay-off for a number of people, the heat, there were a lot of fatigue mistakes during the game and some of the structural stuff we didn't get right. And then there was the opposition," Hansen said.

"We've got a base starting point and now we can keep working and keep going up, and we know we've got a long way to go before we're going to be competitive."

He said he understood the sentiment behind the criticism which coming from back home whom by people who watched the match on television. "But there's no point in panicking, there's not many people who cope well with three weeks off and coming back and playing - usually you try to limit that to two or three guys in a squad of 23, but we had well over two-thirds of them [returning from long lay-offs]."

X-rays have found no crack in lock Luke Romano's cheekbone after he collided with Owen Franks' elbow - but his left eye is closed and black and blue. George Moala, who failed a concussion test, and Colin Slade, who passed one, are fine, Hansen said.

He added the extended squad would meet to talk about the imminent departures of Richie McCaw and Dan Carter - both of whom will be playing their final test in Christchurch on Friday next week.

"As a group we have to sit and around and ask 'how are we going to deal with this, boys?'. Are we going to embrace it and make it work for us or we is going to be something to carry around like a sack of coal on our backs that becomes a burden? That hasn't been the way we've done things in the past and I should imagine that once we get the whole group together we'll have a good conversation about it and get some plans to deal with it."