Steve Hansen wants New Zealand to exert pressure on Australia's set-piece

New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen urged his side to put pressure on Australia's set-piece in the opening game of the Bledisloe Cup in Perth on 10th August.

The two teams will face each other for the first time this year in the final round of the Rugby Championship and Hansen said he was impressed by Wallabies' scrum and line-out.

“Their set-piece is working really well, they’re scrummaging really well, their line-out is running at 100 percent and they’ve always had dangerous backs so we have just got to go and try and put some pressure on their set-piece,” Hansen told the All Blacks website.

“Their scrum is tidy and like every scrum they’ll have moments where they lack concentration and look poor but I think the majority of the time they scrum really well.”

New Zealand suffered a setback in Wellington where their encounter against Springboks ended in a 16-16 draw and now would be hoping for a win over Wallabies and the Springboks to lose their final game against Argentina to have any hope of winning the Rugby Championship title and Hansen is seeking improvement from his side.

“At this time of the season, we have had a couple of weeks together now and two games, so everybody has played a game so we’re expecting to see things improve and combinations starting to click,” he said.

“We know we always improve the more games we have and the more time we spend together. Are we going to improve? How much? We’re going to have to wait and see.”

Following the game in Perth, the two teams will meet once again on 17th August in Auckland for the second and final Bledisloe Cup contest.