Beauden Is Not At Fault, Says Hansen
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen was quick to defend his first-five Beauden Barrett, saying his goal-kicking wasn’t perfect but it was his side’s defence that let them down against the Springboks.
The Springboks secured their first win on New Zealand soil since 2009 with a 36-34 win over the All Blacks in Wellington tonight.
Barrett had a horror night with the boot only converting two out of six shots at goal in his side’s Rugby Championship match.
“We could sit here and turnaround and say we could have kicked a couple of goals and won the game,” Hansen said at a post-match press conference. “That’s not why we lost the game, we lost the game because we allowed South Africa to score 36-points and that is something that we can control as a team.”
The All Blacks coach said his side just weren’t good enough on defence against the plucky Springboks.
“It’s a team game and in this case I know that Beauden is feeling it and he’ll be disappointed but he’ll (Barrett) maybe come out next week and kick 100 per cent,” he said. “That’s the way goalkicking is you can’t carry that bag of coal around on your back all the time because it will kill ya. “So whilst it would have been nice it just didn’t happen tonight.
“As Foz (All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster) said it hit the post twice, it doesn’t get much closer than that.”
OFFSIDE CALLS
Hansen also admitted that he heard a call from a side-line official, saying the Springboks halfback and number eight were offside in the final moments of his side’s Test match loss.
But Hansen believes had the referee in charge Nigel Owen heard the call he would have blown the whistle.
“I just heard the same thing you did, obviously Nigel (Owen) didn’t hear it or he would have done something about it,” Hansen told reporters. South Africa pushed the All Blacks right till fulltime, earning themselves a 36-34 win over the home team at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.
NO GRUDGES
Hansen said he holds no grudges against the officials and said South Africa deserved their victory.
“No point in me talking about that, the game’s about taking your opportunities and making sure the opposition don’t. We didn’t do that so the result is a credit to South Africa.
“I thought they played particularly well and we’ll come out of it with a lot of things to work on.
“We’ll leave Nigel (Owen) out of it.”
GOOD TEACHER
The team fly out to Buenos Aires on Friday, where they’ll meet Argentina on September 30, before the Springboks host them in Pretoria on October 7.
“It’s a massive (teaching tool), so I better be a good teacher over the next couple of weeks,” Hansen said.
“My job’s to be a good teacher, their job’s to be a good student. We talk about that a lot as a team so the ball’s in my court.” Blindside flanker Liam Squire is the only injury concern out of Saturday.
He hurt a hand and will be out for three weeks. There’s no word yet on whether he might be replaced in the squad.
Meanwhile, The Springboks made a massive 226 tackles in the game as opposed to a paltry 46 by the All Blacks. PieterSteph du Toit made 28 on his own, Franco Mostert 23. The props – Steven Kitshoff and Frans Malherbe - made 12 tackles each.
Handre Pollard and Jesse Kriel made 10 Warren Whiteley was everywhere with 17 and Siya Kolisi with 15.
The All Blacks ran 633 metres in the game – the Boks 245.