Captain Cane: We need to fix our work at the breakdown

Having lost five out of their last six games, the All Blacks are under immense pressure and captain Sam Cane says his side need to fix their errors at the breakdown and compete better in the air before next week’s rematch.

Winning has been hard to come by for the All Blacks recently, and Cane said: “A lot of credit has to go to the Springboks for the way they played particularly in the first half. They threw a lot at us.

“We knew the kicking game was coming and they won that battle as well.

“We were looking forward to playing South Africa as it’s been a long time between games and to come out on the wrong side of the scoreboard really hurts but we’ve got the opportunity to fix our mistakes next week.

“It’s hard when you don’t hold on to the ball for long enough. We were a little slow at the breakdown and it hurt us.

“We need to fix our work at the breakdown and compete better overall in the air.

“From the outside looking in you could wonder if our confidence has been shot but I can’t ask anymore of the team in terms of their belief and the effort they are putting in. We’ll fight until the last minute but it’s just small margins at this level.”

Head coach Ian Foster added: “Congratulations to South Africa, they were more clinical than us. For us, I actually thought it was a step up in performance from the last series. The line-out worked well, the maul defence was good and our defence was pretty solid.

“We perhaps just missed a little bit of timing in terms of our attack which we’ll have to take a look at.”