RUGBY New Zealand 14 France 10:NEW ZEALAND'S improved performance in their victory over France on Saturday should hold them in good stead for the remainder of the international season, All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen said yesterday.

New Zealand won the second test 14-10 after putting on a much better display in Wellington than in the 27-22 loss in the first test in Dunedin last week.

With rain and wind lashing Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, both a kicking and passing game proved very difficult to carry out.

It took 26 minutes for Maa Nonu to open the scoring, going in for what proved to be New Zealand’s only try. A fine Cedric Heymans’ try got France back in the game three minutes into the second half and when Julien Dupuy slotted the ball between the posts for the first time, the deficit was just a single point.

Donald and Luke McAlister responded with penalties for the All Blacks as they pulled 14-7 clear.

Dimitri Yachvili gave France hope with a penalty with 13 minutes left but the hosts held on to secure victory.

New Zealand’s performance was a far cry from last weekend’s lacklustre effort. While the series was locked at 1-1, France won the Dave Gallaher Cup for the first time since it was introduced in 2000 courtesy of their five-point victory at Carisbrook.

“What it has done is given everyone a reality check about where they need to be at,” said Hansen. “We saw an improved performance from week one to week two.”

The All Blacks were without several highly-experienced players, including regular captain Richie McCaw, for the French series and had to rely on a good few players only introduced to test rugby within the last 12 months.

“Even though we have got a high number of caps based around a group of players, we still have a lot of guys who are reasonably new to test rugby,” Hansen added.

“To get the quality of test matches we had last night and down in Dunedin gives the guys a true understanding of what is required.”

The All Blacks face Italy next week in Christchurch.

Although the All Blacks improved, the scrum still suffered in the first 25 minutes in Wellington, at times disintegrating under French pressure. Hansen, said he felt the set piece had got better as the match progressed.

“It just takes time to gel that in. We have seen an improvement from last week to this week. I thought at the end of the match we got on top of them. Certainly on our own ball it was pretty stable and Reado (number eight Kieran Read) was able to operate off a pretty functional platform.”