Dane Coles: There is a ‘collective buy-in’ by the All Blacks to find more consistency

All Blacks hooker Dane Coles insists there is a “collective buy-in” from the squad to look for improvements and find a consistent string of form for the first time in 2022.

The Test season this year has been tumultuous for the All Blacks, including a first series loss in the professional era to a northern hemisphere side in July when Ireland claimed the series 2-1 and a first defeat against Los Pumas on New Zealand soil last weekend.

Big clash this weekend

Coach Ian Foster has been under immense pressure, and a win this weekend is crucial to his future at the helm of the All Blacks looking ahead to the World Cup next year.

Coles has been named on the bench for the second Test against Argentina in Waikato and insists that everyone in the squad is invested in finding a way to win games more consistently.

“The number one thing is getting solutions on how to close out games, win games, and be better,” he said.

“I’ve been in a couple of teams where we’ve lost, and the thing at the moment is there’s been no blame game, or pointing the finger, or going rogue. It’s been a collective buy-in to try and get the result and be consistent in our performances, which has been a real positive.

“It’s a place this team hasn’t been, and everyone has got to stand up and get accountability. If somebody comes at you for not doing the job right, you’ve got to get on with it and take the feedback on board.

“You’ve just got to be clear and free. There’s a lot of stuff that’s happening but you have just got to go out there and enjoy the occasion, and just do your job.”

Loose forwards have been fronting up

Captain Sam Cane has also been under tremendous pressure this season. However, team-mate Ardie Savea has come to the defence of any criticism of the loose trio who are searching for new combinations from a “new breed” of players.

“I felt like the loosies have been fronting up, and we’re just trying to navigate the space of a new breed of players,” he said.

“I think for so long New Zealand’s been used to Reado [Kieran Read], the McCaws [Richie McCaw], the Jeromes [Jerome Kaino], that has been amazing.

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“And you’ve got a bunch of new boys coming through, and us, myself as well, who are trying to stamp their mark. So, it’s a day-to-day, week-to-week process. But, I feel like we’re tracking well and putting our best foot forward.

“It’s important to build combinations, but, at the same time, you’ve got to perform under those pressure moments.

“Our focus is staying together and tight, and actually being accountable to ourselves in terms of what’s going wrong in our game and what we have to do. That’s something that we really look hard at ourselves.

“If you get selected, you get selected, and you back yourself, and you back the trust in mates that get selected next to you to go out and do a job. That selection process is out of our hands, all we can do is turn up.”