EDEN PARK, Auckland -- There were a number of warnings sent in the British & Irish Lions' direction by Steve Hansen after the All Blacks' 78-0 hammering of Samoa. First up, they are only going to get better. Secondly, if Warren Gatland does have a few surprise plans up his sleeve for the first Test on June 24, then he is running out of time to fine-tune them.
The All Blacks piled 12 tries on Samoa in their pre-Lions tester in Auckland. They were utterly ruthless, but Hansen said they must improve across the board ahead of the first Test a week on Saturday.
He refrained from saying exactly which areas needed improvement, but the message was: "there's still a lot of work to do". He continued, "This team has to be way better at everything we do if we want to compete against the Lions."
Hansen would not be drawn on whether Kieran Read will be fit for next Saturday but praised the captaincy shown by Ben Smith during the week and in the win over Samoa. Smith is likely to be one of the stars of the Test series and the Lions will know full well what qualities he possesses but Hansen expects the tourists to have learned little from their win over Samoa.
Having done their part, New Zealand will now sit and watch the Lions' match against the Maori on Saturday evening, and Hansen will be keeping a close eye on whether the tourists add anything to the game plan seen so far.
With more than a touch of tongue-in-cheek, Hansen said: "Do I expect them to do something different tomorrow night? Well he keeps telling me he's got something up his sleeve other than his arm so we'll wait and see, won't we? He's started running out of time to get the practice. I've always said, once you have the style that works for you, you usually stick with it, so it's going to be a big move if he changes and we'll wait and see."
Hansen warned the Lions they will have the kitchen sink thrown at them and he will monitor how Owen Farrell progresses with his recovery after suffering a thigh strain. Despite Gatland consistently having Farrell down as a fly-half, Hansen suggested he is in line to play at inside centre for the Lions.
"He's injured at the moment and I think he'd be a massive loss. He's a world-class player and right up there.
"Where do I think he'll play? Probably at 12. He [Gatland] has said he's got something else up his sleeve other than his arm and that might be one of them.
"They went to a lot of trouble when Jonathan Davies went off to put him at centre, when the obvious place to put him was 12, unless Ben [Te'o] can't play 12, I'm not sure.
"It doesn't matter where he plays, he's a good player and we just have to deal with whatever the Lions decide to do with their selections. But he's a world-class player and there's a lot of respect for him in our group."
Hansen was also questioned over his comments earlier in the week when he predicted the Lions would bring in a number of players to bolster their squad, something which is expected to happen over the next couple of days. He even used this to have a slight dig at Gatland.
"Do I think it's a good move? He clearly wants to bring them in so he can have two squads. Asking guys to play Test matches and then a midweek game is tough, so it's probably a smart play.
"It's about as many as Clive [Woodward] brought in now. Although he was probably proven right, wasn't he? He should have brought them in the beginning."