All Blacks pack primed for France finale

With the likes of Israel Dagg, Richard Kahui and Cory Jane lighting up the All Blacks backline it can be easy to overlook the men with their heads buried in the scrum. But the New Zealand forwards have been steadily building momentum throughout Rugby World Cup 2011.

The All Blacks pack dominated Australia in Sunday’s semi-final and their hard work upfront was key to the 20-6 victory that secured their decider against France.

After making his debut in the All Blacks front row in 2008, Ben Franks is used to the “pretty” backline boys receiving the bulk of the adulation but believes it is all part of the job.

“Yeah, I think we need to get more credit,” the 27-year-old joked. "But it's just the whole package. You know when you've got backs like the All Blacks you need to give them quality ball from set piece, so the better ball we can provide from lineout and scrum the more effective they can be.

"That's not just something with the All Blacks, every team wants to have that edge to be able to give their backs great ball."

Franks, who came off the bench to replace his 23-year-old brother Owen against Australia, believes the scrum's impact in the match was a natural progression and the culmination of months of hard work.

Work in progress

"I just think the scrum is where it was always heading,” the Crusaders prop said. “You don't realise that when we come together as All Blacks, we're a group of guys who have come from different forward packs and it takes time to gel and to get those combinations together.

"The weekend was just a progression of when we started way back against Fiji (in a friendly in Dunedin in July) and it's come at the right time.”

New Zealand number 8 Kieran Read believes that while the scrum is a constant work in progress, the All Blacks are in a good position heading into the most important Test match of their careers.

"It probably ebbs and flows,” he said. “Sometimes it goes great and some days it's maybe not quite so good but I think consistently it's been of a pretty high standard the last few years and definitely at the moment it's a real strength.

"We just need to keep building it because there's no bigger test than what the French pack has shown in the last few weeks, so it's going to be a big battle for us."

While the New Zealand pack will have taken pride in how successfully they nullified the ball-pilfering prowess of Australia flanker David Pocock on Sunday, Franks says macho pride will play the most significant role against the French.

Backward steps

"It's a physical contest too. As men you don't want to be taking backwards steps and that's the great challenge of scrummaging and forward play,” he said.

“You win some and you lose some but in big games like this weekend the team that can perform the best in those areas will go a long way to winning it.

"The difference between a good scrum and a bad scrum can be very small so obviously we need to go up another notch on the weekend because the French pack definitely will.”

Second row Ali Williams said: “Last week’s performance won’t be good enough. I don’t care about what you think or how the French have played in the last weeks, they’ll be a completely different side.

“They’ll be a team that’s possessed, they’ll bring everything to us and if we’re not at that level and better then we’ll walk away with nothing.

“For us this means everything and the reality is we have to give everything.”