All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has rubbed salt in the wounds of northern hemisphere rugby, saying a lack of unity has cost them at the Rugby World Cup.

The four teams who comprise the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship will square off in the tournament's semi-finals this weekend. New Zealand and South Africa beat France and Wales respectively set up a clash at Twickenham on Saturday. Australia and Argentina will meet a day later at the London venue following their contrasting quarter-final wins on Sunday.

The Wallabies needed a last-gasp penalty to beat Scotland 35-34 at Twickenham while the Pumas had too much verve for Six Nations champions Ireland in a stunning 43-20 upset in Cardiff.

Hansen launched a critique of Europe's top teams, believing attitude needs to change across the board if they are to keep pace with the south.

© Stu Forster/Getty Images

Having spent two years in charge of Wales in the early 2000s, Hansen experienced difficulties he says still exist between the owner-led regions and the Welsh Rugby Union. He believes the same fractures exist between private club owners and the national bodies in England and France. The cracks were brutally exposed in the All Blacks' 62-13 quarter-final rout of France at Cardiff.

"It's difficult if you're not on the same page and I'm not sure whether in France the two organisations are on the same page," he said. "You need to have the same goals and the same vision. There are a lot of foreign players in the Top 14 and that means there are a lot of French players who are not getting the chance to grow and develop.

"If you want to be successful at international level you have to be united from the top down."

Tournament hosts England, who failed to advance from the pool phase, will still be the only northern hemisphere nation to have won the Rugby World Cup in its eight editions since 1987.

Hansen says the three major European club competitions - the French Top 14, the English Premiership and the Pro12 in Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Italy - appear to recruiting more overseas players every year. It follows the English soccer model, he believes, in which the Premier League is one of the best and most lucrative in the world but the national team has struggled to compete with the world's best for 50 years.

"I think we [New Zealand] have got our model right. We are all on the same page and we want to support international rugby and all head in the same direction. I am not sure up here, if that's the case."

Hansen says the nature of Super Rugby enhances the players' ability to perform at speed but it is also more physical than northern critics espouse.

Meanwhile, Hansen says All Blacks medical staff will wait another day before diagnosing the extent of a groin injury to Wyatt Crockett and wing Nehe Milner-Skudder's shoulder injury.

Loosehead prop Crockett exited the game in the 29th minute and he was replaced by Joe Moody, who performed strongly and could yet make a remarkable start in a RWC semi-final two weeks after an NPC campaign for Canterbury was his only focus. Milner-Skudder did not return after halftime and was icing his left shoulder on the bench.