All Blacks coach Steve Hansen pays tribute to side after win over Wales

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen saw enough from his side's 39-21 victory over Wales on Saturday to give him a hint that the most successful team of the professional age is going to maintain their standards despite the loss of seasoned players.

The rugby world had been concentrating on the match to see if the All Blacks, without six all-time greats who ended their international careers after a successful World Cup campaign, would show signs of weakness.

In the first half, many would have been thinking they were indeed fallible. At one moment they were patient and composed as they played a game at high tempo designed to run the Welsh off Eden Park.

The next, they were dropping the ball or turning it over, missing tackles, making poor decisions and looking rattled as an adventurous Welsh side put them under pressure.

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In the second half, however, the class of 2016 simply took a deep breath, knuckled down and showed they were going to be just as competitive as their predecessors.

They scored three tries in the final 20 minutes and kept Wales scoreless for virtually the entire second half.

"We couldn't have asked for more," Hansen told reporters. "We have got a group of young men. New captain, new vice captain, new leaders ... some new players coming in.

"For large parts of the game, yeah it wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but what we did get out of that was having to learn to keep our composure under pressure ... and to come through and win the game in the end," he added.

New Zealand All Blacks Ardie Savea is tackled during the rugby Test match between the New Zealand All Blacks and Wales at Eden Park in Auckland on June 11, 2016.

Image credit: Eurosport

"When you judge a team is when they're under pressure and the response we got was first rate."

The performance of several players who had stepped into the boots of the likes of Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and the centre combination of Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith, was telling.

The machine just kept ticking along without them.

Openside flanker Sam Cane was a handful on defence and prominent with the ball in hand, flyhalf Aaron Cruden was able to dictate play and pop up in the most unlikely of places as a defender.

The midfield of Ryan Crotty and Malakai Fekitoa, despite being cut open a little too much in general play during the first half, settled in the second period as they went forward and held the defensive line together.

Hansen praised his young leadership group for their maturity then sent a warning to the rugby world.

"I think they put a line in the sand," he said.

"We'll go forward from here and get better. You have to start somewhere and they're going about re-establishing themselves."

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