All Blacks working on specifics

25/09/2007 NZPA

Pool matches are like stepping stones through a small, murky pond en route to the crystal clear waters of the World Cup playoffs, according to All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen.

While some pundits think the top team should be fielded in the final pool match against Romania in Toulouse on Sunday morning that is unlikely to happen, with Hansen saying objectives for the first month of the tournament had long been set in place.

"The whole thing about this tournament is you can be the best side in the world but, to win, you have to be the best team in the tournament," he said.

"The key thing for us is getting through this round robin with everybody available for the quarterfinal and then picking a team that suits the side we're playing against."

Hansen revealed each of the first three pool fixtures so far against Italy, Portugal and Scotland have been preceded by a week of working hard on one specific element of the game.

Before Scotland, the focus was set pieces, with the scrum and lineout both not up to speed in the first two outings.

"We're just trying to get to where we need to get to, be in the right shape both mentally and physically so we can play more than one type of game and play it well," Hansen said.

"I don't think Scotland got more than two or three decent pieces of possession either from the scrum or the lineout.

"We just about had all of the ball, of any quality anyway."

With a quarterfinal -- quite possibly against France -- to follow the lightweight Romanian challenge, this week was more about easing off.

After the team break, there will be just two days of preparation for the pool finale.

"Our big focus is recharging the batteries mentally and getting away from each other," Hansen said.

"When we come back we want another good performance in our set piece plays and we'll look to tidy up some of the errors that we made that shouldn't have been made."

The handling horrors at Edinburgh had multiple causes, Hansen believed.

His explanations mirrored those used when the All Blacks spilled a wealth of ball in this year's early tests against France and Canada and also for chunks of the Tri-Nations.

Taking on too much on attack remained the main culprit.

"Clearly when you try and play rugby and move the ball against a side who defends well, as Scotland did, then there are going to be some errors," Hansen said.

"We're a team that tries to play rugby. We'd rather be like that than kick and clap it.

"We've just got to tidy it up a wee bit, which I'm extremely confident we'll do."

The clash between the grey New Zealand and Scotland jerseys hadn't helped, with Hansen convinced it was the cause of some poor option-taking.

A good example, he said, was when second five-eighth Luke McAlister ignored an unmarked Doug Howlett inside him after making a break.

Hansen insisted nobody played their way out of selection contention for the quarterfinals and also defended first five-eighth Daniel Carter, who had a subdued match on attack by his lofty standards.

"I thought his kicking, apart from at goal, was outstanding," Hansen said.

"He kicked long, he kicked into space."

The team to face Romania was to be named on Thursday night (NZ time) and was unlikely to include fullback Mils Muliaina, who the selectors will want to be completely free of his hamstring strain heading into the playoffs.

Romania were to play Portugal in the battle of the winless pool C teams in Toulouse tomorrow morning (NZ time).