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Referee Owens 'wasn't focused', Hansen claims
By Iain Strachan
All Black coach Steve Hansen feels referee Nigel Owens got 'caught up in the festival atmosphere' of the Barbarians match at Twickenham.
The Welshman took charge of the 2015 Rugby World Cup final, won by the All Blacks against Australia at the same venue, and is one of the most respected officials in the sport.
He shared some jokes with the players and tried to encourage a free-flowing contest in the exhibition match, but Hansen feels Owens was not quite at his sharpest as a consequence.
"It was a festival game wasn't it, and he is like the rest of us," Hansen told a news conference.
"He's fallen into the trap of getting caught up in it. He did a good job - I'm not saying he didn't, but there's no doubt in my mind that he wasn't as focused as he would have been if it was a Test match.
"The crowd that came here wanted to see the rugby that was played and they wanted to see tries, hence why they clapped and then booed when the try under the post wasn't awarded. It's difficult for a player to get their head around that and it's also difficult for the ref."
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Latest Comments
Hard disagree. For those who want to turn rugby into league, there’s already league: a sport nobody cares about, globally speaking.
The beauty of rugby is in its variability: many different ways to win. I want to see running rugby, I want to see free flow counter-attacking rugby, but I also want to see mauls, and scrums, and lineouts, and proper breskdown battles with exciting turnovers.
There is a reason rugby is a top 10 global sport, whereas no one really gives a hoot about league. You’ve seen 20mins of a league match, you’ve seen it all.
I don’t want to see rugby degrade into 80 mins of foot race. And I don’t think, that that’s what the majority of rugby fans want.
Go to commentsYikes, what a hosing.
Don’t think the Bears are legit title contenders. You can lose, but not like this. Getting bent over and pumped like this completely removes the fear factor of s team.
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