Barnes admits All Blacks were 'shown up' by Stormers but sees progress ahead of South Africa Test

All Blacks assistant coach Neil Barnes has conceded New Zealand were outplayed in key areas during their opening tour game against the Stormers, even as the side accumulated a 142-40 scoreline across three warm-up fixtures against Super Rugby club opposition.

New Zealand defeated the Bulls 50-19 at Loftus Versfeld at the weekend, showing marked improvement in the driving maul defence that had troubled them a week earlier. The intervening fixture against the Sharks ended with the hosts failing to score.

“When you think about our first game against the Stormers, we got shown up a little bit in our maul defence and set piece,” Barnes told Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB. “But we’ve made some shifts in that; still got more to do.”

Despite the heavy aggregate winning margin, Barnes was not entirely satisfied with the team’s execution, estimating the All Blacks left a significant number of tries on the field. “I think we probably left four or five tries out there. We’re creating a lot, and that’s what we’re after. We’ve just got to get better at finishing.”

With the Test series opener against world number one South Africa now imminent, Barnes signalled a shift in approach — less experimentation, more precision. “You fine-tune a lot now,” he said. “It’s a Test match coming up. It’ll just be at a way, way higher level, as we’re all well aware we’re playing against one of the best sides in the world, and there’s an understanding that we’ll need to be at our best to compete.”

On selection, Barnes was unambiguous that no spots in the matchday 23 are guaranteed, saying the coaching staff had “deliberately haven’t picked a Test side” to keep competition open across the squad. “The jerseys are there for the grabs, and it’s just going to be selected on performance,” he added.

Still only two months into their tenure leading the All Blacks, Barnes and the wider coaching group have been careful not to overload players with new information as they bed in a revised game plan. The Test series opener against South Africa at Ellis Park represents the first genuine measure of where this new-look All Blacks side stands.