New assistant coach Jason Ryan has wasted no time stamping his mark on the All Blacks forward pack, still reeling from their historic series-defeat to Ireland this month.
After massive public and social media outcry over the performance, the Crusaders forwards coach was brought into the NZ team set-up, with the departure of incumbents Brad Mooar and John Plumtree.
With the Rugby Championship looming, beginning with two 'away' tests against world champions South Africa, coach Ian Foster has very little time to turn things around, but Ryan has immediately shown he won't mince words in his quest for improvement.
"There's no hiding from it," he said. "The All Black pack has been dented - it really has been.
"We talked about it in the forwards meeting today, we didn't hide anything. We were really, really honest and we have to be."
An interested bystander to the All Blacks' capitulation to the Irish, Ryan has come into the role with a list of work-ons and set about fixing those frailities on day one.
"We've got to stop mauls, that's for sure," he said. "There's a little bit of work that needs to go into that - and our contact area.
"We've stripped a little bit out of our stuff today and just concetrated on the critical few things to be a bit clearer on what we're trying to do, which will help our contract area."
Ryan has been the behind-the-scenes architect of the Crusaders' latest dynasty, under the coaching of Scott Robertson. Both came into their roles at the same time and reached 100 games together in the Super Rugby Pacific semi-final win over the Chiefs.
Ironically, Ryan was part of the proposed structure, when Robertson unsuccessfully lobbied for the All Blacks coaching job, and now finds himself working under Foster, but isn't buying into the perceived conflict.
"I'll answer that really clearly. It's a chance to coach my country, it's a dream to always be an All Blacks forwards coach and I can't wait to get into it.
"I'm on the All Black ticket."
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