Wallabies v All Blacks
Kick-off: 5:45pm Saturday 21 September (NZT)
Accor Stadium, Sydney
Live updates on RNZ Sport
Codie Taylor might be in career-best form, but he's not taking a battered Wallabies side lightly this weekend in Sydney.
"Australia can do anything on their day," said the 88-test hooker.
"We've seen that in the past. There's already a bit of an edge… they try and apply pressure a lot around the set piece and they can disrupt the breakdown. They've got class backs that can create stuff out of nothing… even though they had a tough result last week, I feel like any Australian team is tough when they're at home."
While it was clear that Taylor was being respectful to the All Blacks' longtime foes, calling their last match "tough" was putting it mildly. The Wallabies were coming off a scarcely believable 67-27 loss to Argentina in the last round of the Rugby Championship, made even more outrageous given they led 20-3 at one stage.
However, the All Blacks were coming off two losses of their own - albeit much tighter ones against the current world champion Springboks. Taylor said the forwards had taken some key lessons from their experiences in South Africa.
Wallace Sititi takes line out ball. Photo: Nic Bothma/ActionPress
"We're proud of a few things, we had an honest review about our set piece stuff and how we can be better. There is a lot of pride there around the things we could create out there on the footy field."
Taylor said the coaching environment under Jason Ryan had been one of honesty first.
"The great thing is, around Jase (Ryan) and the forward pack is that everyone's honest. We've all got a role to play, whatever that is you've got to nail it when you're out there. To get the results, we have to do it a bit more."
Taylor, 33, was currently the oldest player in the All Blacks, but that had not stopped him from being one of the standout performers this season.
"You definitely feel like you have an obligation to lead, to fulfil that title of the people that were here before, that had that on their shoulders. You want to live up to that… but I'm definitely enjoying it. I love being a part of this team and the environment, what the coaching group's created about what we want to be as a team and identify as. I'm taking a lot of pride around my own game and how that can help."
Despite being favourites this weekend at Accor Stadium, Taylor said the focus was on improvement.
"There's still stuff we want to do better. As Kiwis, we often look at the things we didn't do well more so than the good. But definitely feeling good around the field. We've still got so much more potential, out of this pack and this team."
