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| | Thursday, 20 June, 2002, 10:46 GMT 11:46 UK Mitchell demands improvement Ireland pushed New Zealand hard in the first Test New Zealand coach John Mitchell says his team will have to improve on their first Test performance when they meet Ireland in the second Test in Auckland on Saturday. The All Blacks were heavily criticised after the 15-6 win over the Irish last weekend, but Mitchell is refusing to panic. "We strive for perfection and sometimes it doesn't go to plan," Mitchell said. "We have shown faith in a better performance this time by retaining most of the Dunedin team.
"They have the opportunity to improve, but I'm not into threatening. I'm not that type of person." Mitchell said that he has had to carry out some "Super 12 decontamination" on his team. Fourteen of the 15 starters for the second Test will be from the Super 12 champions, the Canterbury Crusaders, with Jonah Lomu the only exception. "Some of the players have come out of a highly successful Super 12 and have had the high feeling of becoming All Blacks.
Mitchell's Irish counterpart, Eddie O'Sullivan, said he expected a backlash from the All Blacks. "They've had a tough time of it and they'll try and fix things that went wrong and up the ante on us. "France and England gave us some terrible trouble on defence and we thought the All Blacks would too, but our boys stood up well." Along with Christian Cullen, former All Black captain Randell has been dropped for Saturday's second Test against Ireland. Full-back Cullen will make his debut for the Northern United club in Wellington as part of what Mitchell calls his "development plan". | |
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