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'I didn’t push enough buttons': Steve Hansen takes blame for All Blacks' 2019 semi-final defeat
By Kim Ekin
Former All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen has opened up on the 2019 semi-final defeat to England which ended hopes of three consecutive World Cup titles.
After getting through South Africa 23-13 in pool play and dispatching Ireland comfortably 46-14, the All Blacks were stunned by England 19-7 and held scoreless in the first half.
The head coach was on high alert after the Ireland win but says he didn't "demand enough" of the side heading into the semi-final, calling the All Blacks "mentally soft".
“I have to take the blame. We beat Ireland pretty convincingly in the quarter-finals," Hansen told The Times.
"I earmarked that as a danger but we also had Kieran Read injured and I was trying to make sure we didn’t lose confidence if he was out.
"I wasn’t demanding enough. I didn’t push enough buttons and we went in a little soft mentally and England came in on fire."
The All Blacks and England did not play during 2016 and 2017 when both sides were on top of the world in the rankings.
They finally met at Twickenham in late 2018 which ended with a tight 19-18 win to the All Blacks after a late try to Sam Underhill was chalked off for an offside call.
After that tough encounter, the semi-final was always expected to be close but England were on top early and never let up.
Hansen believed he had the squad to win the title again but they were off on the day, which shows how hard it is to win the title.
“World Cups are the hardest things to win. We were good enough to win in 2007 and we were good enough to win in 2019, but we didn’t," Hansen said.
"And that’s the facts. That tells you how hard it is to win it.
“You have to survive three weeks in a row against really good opponents.
"You have a mental slip and are a few per cent down and the other team are 5 per cent above themselves, then you are gone."
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Latest Comments
I was at this match. Jordie Barrett earned his money with a massive hit to slow a connaught attack to win the math when Leinster had 14 in the last few mins. Mack Hansen had a real go at the refereeing after citing a serious head hits on Iaone and Aki.
connaught were up for this. Snyman tried a trademark dirty after, and the onnaught 4 and the onnaught pack absolutely laid into him.
Leinster hose to kick to the corner when only winning by 5 with 10 left and qith only 2 tries scored. onnaught should have punisihed them for that utter stupidity after they broke out and Leinster yellowed to stop the attack.
13 changes from last week. It seems teams are scoring about 10 points less against Leinster this year. With Neinaber in his second year, the new attack coah established, surely they will be a bigger threat in champions up? Or will the attack recgress further.
They must adopt the SA philosophy of take your 3 pointers and the bonus points will come.
connaught back line inluding Iaone, Murphy, Aki, Forde, cordero is the seond best in Ireland surely. Leinster were lucky here
Go to commentsShould have played more for England but he jumped ship just as he was breaking through.
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