Hansen: We are in a similar position to where we were a year out from RWC2015

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said in Dublin that his side were in a similar position to where they were a year out from the 2015 Rugby World Cup and the Test against Ireland would be a final assessment of how they were tracking for the 2019 event in Japan.

Back in 2014 they were said to not have had the best of years but had still won a lot of games, Hansen said.

"We're doing the same thing this year. We're finding out a lot about ourselves, about our selections, about how we want to play the game so, from a Rugby World Cup point of view, we're on track," he said.

The outcome on Saturday would not affect the World Cup. 

It would give a guideline on how they were going but he said he had never worried too much about what happened yesterday. It was about the now. The World Cup was still a wee way away so there was still a lot of work they could put in before then.

The All Blacks were not holding anything back for the World Cup. They were introducing new options and that had made them a little scrappy so it was a balance between waiting long enough, and introducing it early enough, so the side could master what it was trying to do.

"The best thing that ever happened to northern hemisphere rugby was that you didn't make any of the semifinals in the World Cup [2015] and you've gone away and Ireland, particularly, were really disappointed about their World Cup. They've come back strong, England have come back strong, won 18 in a row and they've got a good team there at the moment.

"France have started to get their stuff together, so when you've got teams who are raising the bar and playing each other regularly it's got to be good for you. The standard of rugby world-wide, I think, has got better and it's a good thing that it has," he said.