New Zealand legend Steve Hansen outlines how the All Blacks can beat the Boks

New Zealand will head to South Africa next month as they prepare to face the back-to-back world champions in four Test matches.

It is a tour which could effectively define their season as they look to put themselves in a good position ahead of World Cup year in 2027.

Under the guidance of new boss Rennie, the All Blacks developed nicely in the Nations Championship, but their series with the Boks will ultimately define where they truly stand in the world game.

South Africa still have the best set-piece while their kicking game and work under the high ball is ahead of every other nation.

"Any good team, if you take away what they want then they automatically have got to start thinking. They don't expect that to be the case, they expect to go and get what they want," Hansen told the Rugby Unity podcast.

"South Africa want physicality so if you're the ball carrier you can't allow them to physically dominate you so you've got to use your footwork in the contact.

"You've got to make sure that your breakdown work is good because of that footwork into contact so just deny them the opportunity to impose themselves on top of you.

"They want a high ball contest so you've got to find a way to take that out."

It is the aerial game which was a big weakness under Rennie's predecessor, Scott Robertson, especially when World Rugby altered the ‘escort' law.

They were not really tested in that facet during the Nations Championship, but the Boks will no doubt target high ball dominance next month.

As a result, Hansen, who was joined on the show by ex-Wallabies boss Ewen McKenzie, has put forward an idea to potentially negate the impact South Africa could have with their box-kicks and ‘up and unders'.

"You've got two guys running back for the ball, one of them is your guy, one of them is theirs, and we always let their guy jump for the ball," he said.

"You can't run a block so we're starting to see one or two teams do it, but in those contested kicks, why can't the guy running back catch it?

"What South Africa do really, really well if you look at them is they don't catch that many but they force you to drop most of them because they jump and cause havoc in the air.

"They're legitimately contesting the kick so I'm sitting on this ball waiting to come, it's a good kick, I've got this guy coming at me, he's in my space, if I don't get that right, it's a knock-on.

"Let's reshape how we think about this and say, righto, you and I are both running back for this kick, we both have the same opportunity to catch it, surely?

"Ewen's playing for South Africa, I'm playing for the All Blacks, I'm going to win the ball. If I don't win it, at least I've got somebody at that 12 o'clock, so that if I do knock it down it's going to go into his arms.

"I take away that opportunity for South Africa to get a free shot of interfering with that catcher, who by the way is our last line of defence if we don't get someone in behind him."

Hansen coached one of the best teams the sport has ever seen as he guided them to Rugby World Cup glory in 2015.

At the time the All Blacks were regarded as one of the great innovators and the 67-year-old wants Rennie to "think outside the square" this year.

"I like doing the unexpected against them because they want to be able to go chug, chug, chug, chug, chug. Yes, they'll tell you they play it at pace but that's after they've chugged you and physicalled the s*** out of you," he added.

"Then they'll speed it up because you've got nothing left and it looks like they're going faster but they're really not, they've just got more energy because you're knackered trying to prevent their physicality.

"Think outside the square and do it in a way that they can't have what they want because then they'll get frustrated.

"They will starting thinking, ‘this is not right, I'm the top dog here', and then they start to question themselves."