Rugby: Business as usual for All Blacks

All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Coach Steve Hansen says it's "business as usual" after the All Blacks today arrived in Sydney exactly one year after the discovery of a listening device at the team hotel which contrived to send relations between them and the Wallabies to a new low.

The All Blacks will base themselves at the same Intercontinental Hotel in Double Bay, with Michael Cheika's team out of sight but definitely not out of mind in Penrith in the city's western suburbs.

"Spygate" and the court case featuring security guard Adrian Gard is ongoing and will provide a backdrop to Saturday's test at ANZ Stadium, the first for the All Blacks since their series draw against the British & Irish Lions, meaning this is unlikely to be an ordinary test week.

It could help to focus minds on both sides one year after the All Blacks put a big score on the Wallabies here. Hansen, for one, has insisted that it will not provide a distraction to his team.

"It's just business as usual," he said, adding that his players wouldn't be told to stop reading newspapers. "At the end of the day they're professional athletes - we've got a job to do and we'll prepare accordingly and get on with it."

Losing hooker Dane Coles as a precautionary measure after the Hurricanes player suffered another head knock is a blow for him and the team but the good news for Hansen is that Codie Taylor is in excellent form and the Crusaders had apparently recovered well from their travels and celebrations after winning the Super Rugby title.

There's little doubt the series draw to Warren Gatland's Lions will give the All Blacks an added edge while providing some comfort perhaps for the Wallabies.

"Does coming off a draw put people's bums to the front of the seat rather than the back of it? Yeah, it does," Hansen said. "We're disappointed with how things went - we wanted more. It will make the Investec Rugby Championship into one with a stronger feeling for us and one that we want to show how good we can play and we probably didn't do that during the Lions series.

"They're a talented bunch," he said of the Wallabies. "I know they've got a few problems with the in-fighting over the Force thing but that's not our concern. What is our concern is the talent they've got. They'll be well prepared. They've had two or three extra weeks to prepare than what we've had. I know they've been working hard and that will make them a tough side on Saturday.

"I'm confident that we're well aware of the flaws that were exposed and I'm confident that we've worked hard in trying to improve on them.

Hansen said he wouldn't be giving evidence at Gard's trial this week. "No. I've got nothing to do with the bug."

Asked if there would be banter between himself and Cheika, he said: "We'll see how it goes. We've got to help sell tickets haven't we?"