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'How disappointed? Very' - Hansen's blunt assessment on the All Blacks' persisting problem
By Online Editors
The All Blacks say Wales are welcome to the No.1 world ranking, relaxed to shed themselves of the long-held status heading into a Rugby World Cup defence that is gathering serious momentum.
Coach Steve Hansen was bemused that New Zealand should lose the top spot they've held for a decade in the immediate wake of a 36-0 crushing of Australia.
However, he won't be losing any sleep over it, reminding Welsh counterpart Warren Gatland that the spotlight will now shine a little brighter on the Six Nations champions when they arrive in Japan.
"We just need to get ourselves in the right frame of mind to go over and win the World Cup, so I'm not too worried about that."
After three patchy outings in 2019, the All Blacks rediscovered their mojo at Eden Park.
Rivals hoping the three-time world champions were back-pedalling won't have enjoyed the sight of a Kiwi pack defying critics in compelling style while new wingers Sevu Reece and George Bridge injected energy on the end of a slick backline.
"It's massive really because everyone externally was starting to get a bit shaky and starting to question whether the coaches still had it, the players still had it," Hansen said.
"Where we had question marks, we no longer have question marks."
Hansen's only gripe was the yellow card shown to hooker Dane Coles for a dangerous judo flip on Wallabies halfback Nic White.
It came a week after Scott Barrett was sent off for his shoulder charge in the heavy loss at Perth and represents a concerning trend, as the outcome big World Cup matches could swing on ill-discipline.
"How disappointed? Very. We'll deal with that behind closed doors and move on," Hansen said.
"It's a constant work-on for Colesy and it's a good reminder for him.
"You're going to get moments when he does something you'd classify as dumb."
New Zealand's World Cup squad is named on August 28 and they'll play Tonga in Hamilton on September 7, two weeks out from their mouth-watering tournament opener against South Africa.
Hansen expects five-eighth Richie Mo'unga to be fit to face Tonga, having suffered minor shoulder damage against Australia.
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Latest Comments
Thats exactly the criticism Ed, that it has already been done for generations. A strong SA, in many respects, should certainly help African rugby develop. You'd have to think they'd acclimatize much better being drawn to a pro SA club than say a European. Hopefully the fact theyve gone private (is that right Graham?) should enable this sort of change.
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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