All Blacks on warpath

A simple piece of advice from the former New Zealand captain and World Cup-winning coach Brian Lochore will be used to help motivate the All Blacks for their second Test against France in Wellington at this morning following their defeat in last weekend's opening match.

"He said [we] were ready for the battle but not the war," the All Blacks coach, Graham Henry, said yesterday of Lochore's impression of the 27-22 first Test loss in Dunedin. "That was a pretty good statement from BJ [Lochore]. A lot of the boys just did not understand what was required until they had experienced that. Hopefully they will be ready for war."

The All Blacks were well beaten by a superb defensive effort by France last week. Henry said the team had been concentrating on the lessons learned to prepare for the Test at Westpac Stadium which starts at 8.35am BST. "Another week together is very helpful. They know what Test match rugby is all about," Henry said. "We always have physical contests in the first game [of the season] and some of the guys weren't used to that. It's a learning curve and if we haven't learned from last week we're in trouble."