All Blacks halfback Aaron Smith has admitted complacency crept in after France fullback Benjamin Fall was sent off in the early stages of last night’s second Test.
The All Blacks recorded a scrappy 26-13 win in Wellington with the red card given to Fall in the 12 th minute changing the complexion of the match.
Smith said the All Blacks may have been guilty of thinking they would run riot against a 14-man French side as they did in the last 30 minutes of the first Test against Les Bleus at Eden Park.
Hansen says he would like to see a way of keeping players 'in the park' after situations like the one Benjamin Fall suffered.
"Once the red card had happened, we might have thought that it was going to happen like the last 30 last week where we could just try run around them and not earn the right to score tries," he said.
The All Blacks also said that sometimes being reduced to 14 men provide an unlikely boost to a team.
"I think they maybe got a bit of energy from that, I know as a player when you’re down a man you do a little bit more," he said.
Smith admitted the All Blacks were at times powerless to stop the French offloads despite the best laid plans to combat the tourists' flair.
"Around the French flair and offloads, it’s pretty hard to stop, we had all these plans to try, we got it right sometimes but some of those tries they got were pretty good," he said.
"Something that we said in the changing room last night as a team is, smell the roses and appreciate the wins we get."
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