News

Kaino to stay aggressive

August 05 2008

If New Zealand harbour any serious ambitions of winning the Tri-Nations then they must maintained the controlled aggression shown against Australia at the weekend.

Following Saturday's 39-10 Bledisloe Cup victory over Australia the All Blacks have revived their Tri-Nations hopes, but must now, according to Jerome Kaino, maintain their standards throughout the remainder of the tournament.

The All Blacks will assemble in Auckland on Thursday, having had a four-day break, as they prepare for their away leg in South Africa and Australia.

Kaino, back at six for Saturday's Test, was back to his best in his usual position - having played at number eight in Richie McCaw's absence, with Rodney So'oialo at seven.

And now Kaino wants his team-mates to continue at the same intensity level, with controlled aggression to the fore, against South Africa and Australia.

"There was a lot of pressure, I felt the pressure myself being a young guy," Kaino told the New Zealand press.

"Our message was just to keep the ball up. And if we be aggressive with the ball in hand, it would keep them out of the game.

"I think our ball-carriers, whenever we went into contact, we drove them that extra metre just to get them out of the game.

"The boys really wanted a lot of aggression out there.

"There is a fine line between aggression and anger. And anger is when you do stupid stuff. That was the message throughout the week.

"The coaches drove home that our attitude wasn't up to par the week before.

"So for us to get the upper hand in this game we had to start off well and set our intentions straight from the get-go. I think the boys started off well and it lead off into the rest of the game."

It was arguably Kaino's best performance in an All Black shirt, restored at number six, and Forwards Coach Steve Hansen was delighted at how the tactical move had worked against Australia.

However Hansen was not prepared to say whether or not the experiment of playing left and right flankers was about to be scrapped in favour of a specialist six and seven.

Kaino believes the nature of Saturday's win will ensure the All Blacks travel to South Africa in high spirits.

"It will give us a lot of confidence leading into the African game," he said.

"As a group, we have had a lot of pressure over the last couple of weeks. This win means a lot to us.

"Heading over to Africa is not going to be easy. But it is good for us as a group just to have some confidence in what we can do heading over there."

Kaino said the All Blacks had challenged themselves to "keep our pressure on the pedal" throughout the Eden Park Test.

That had largely been achieved, highlighting to the All Blacks how good they could be if they executed a well thought-out game-plan.

"Firstly it helped with us holding onto the ball," he said.

"The tactics, the coaches thought well about what we were going to take into the game. And the boys wanted to execute that well.

"It came off quite well. A lot of it came down to the boys' attitude and what we wanted to do.

"You can have the best game-plan in the world. But if you are not going to implement it well, then it is a waste of time.

"But I think Dan Carter and Millsy (Mils Muliaina) and the boys at the back really directed us well with the boot."