Barrett demands back-to-back excellence as All Blacks head to Sydney

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Barrett reflected on a three-week break after a disappointing campaign against the Springboks on Rugby's Greatest Rivalry tour, before the side reconvened with clear motivation.

"We didn't get where we wanted in South Africa, and we had three weeks off; we came back in on Sunday, and a few boys had some minutes, but there's certainly a little bit of hurt there from the tour of South Africa," Barrett said.

That residual edge proved useful against a Wallabies side arriving with confidence after their own win over South Africa.

"We knew what was coming, and there was a confident Australian team off the back of beating South Africa," he said.

"So there's certainly a bit of edge around in the week, and a Bledisloe Test at Eden Park brings the best out of you individually."

The midfielder was quick to credit the forwards for establishing the platform that allowed the backs to flourish in the 50-point haul.

"The big boys did a good job up front too with some physicality, and laid a platform - need that in rugby and it allows the backs to do their job. So hopefully more of the same," Barrett said.

Attention now turns to the return fixture in Sydney this weekend, with Australia traditionally presenting a sterner test on home soil.

Barrett made clear the All Blacks view consecutive high-standard performances as non-negotiable.

"I want to back them up. We got another challenge here in Sydney this week against a good Australian side who have a great record, particularly in Australia at home," he said.

"We know how tough this is going to be, and we've spoken about how, if we want to go to where we want to go as a team, we've got to put up back-to-back performances.

"So, hopefully we can keep our standards high."

Barrett also pointed to specific areas of improvement identified after the South African tour, suggesting the Eden Park display represented progress without requiring major tactical upheaval.

"There were areas that we need to get better at from the South African tour," he said.

"I felt like we made a step forward in those areas, but we don't need to stray too far from that.

"Just keep growing those parts of the game and just get better as a side. So, we're going to need to be a consistent group if we want to go there."

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