Steve Hansen has commenced the verbal warfare and mind games ahead of the Bledisloe Cup Test against Australia in Auckland on Saturday, saying Jaco Peyper had apologised for a string of mistakes in the opening match of the Rugby Championship in Sydney.

Australia held their own in the scrum in Sydney, but ESPN columnist Craig Down has exposed what he described as "illegal and dangerous" technique from the Wallabies while Hansen said after naming his team that South African referee Peyper had admitted he erred in continually awarding short-arm penalties against New Zealand for scrum pre-engagements.

Steve Hansen is stirring the possum already © Getty Images

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Hansen said Peyper had also said he wrongly sin-binned prop Wyatt Crockett for what was seen as a cynical breakdown foul late in the first half.

Hansen said initially that he did not want to go into detail about "other factors" that spoiled All Black plans to dominate up front, but he went on to say that Peyper had made life tough for his side.

"That has been dealt with," Hansen said. "We've spoken to the ref about the scrimmaging, and he put his hand up that he got his free kicks wrong. The yellow card was wrong, the first one, that ball was out.

"It was quite a good conversation and I respect the man for his honesty and he's no different to players. He had a bad day at the office and he put his hand up. But I have to emphasise it wasn't just his problem; we had a hell of a bad day ourselves."

Hansen has put the onus on his more experienced tight-five to set the platform on Saturday night, and also to adapt better to French referee Romain Poite's interpretations.

Poite whistled Australia's scrum off the park in the series-deciding Test against the British & Irish Lions last year.