LIONS TAMERS
Don’t forget we won in Ireland, blasts Hansen
ALL BLACKS coach Steve Hansen says Warren Gatland is ‘clutching at straws’ if he thinks Ireland’s win over New Zealand last November will have any bearing on the Lions.
Gatland named his 41-man squad on Wednesday saying there was no clear stand-outs for starting players in a number of positions. With five matches against New Zealand’s dominant Super Rugby teams, he claimed said the Lions faced the ‘toughest tour’ but seized upon Ireland’s 40-29 win over the All Blacks in Chicago in November as proof they were only human.
Hansen, however, was quick to counter saying that the Lions staff would not want to base their selections on that result, given the All Blacks defeated the Irish 21-9 two weeks later in Dublin.
‘I am pretty happy that our guys got some confidence beating Ireland in Ireland,’ he told New Zealand’s Radio Sport. ‘You’re clutching at straws if that’s how you are selecting teams. You pick players who can do the job you want them to do and play the style of game you want to play.’
IT didn’t take long for All Blacks coach Steve Hansen to return fire after Warren Gatland fired the first shots in the PR war when naming his 41-strong Lions squad for tour to New Zealand. And when he took aim, he hit the target.
While the hosts are still expected to win the series, 12 years after they whitewashed a Clive Woodward-led Lions squad laden with English World Cup winners, the tourists are not travelling without hope.
With five matches against New Zealand’s dominant Super Rugby teams, Gatland said his squad faces the ‘toughest tour’ but seized upon Ireland’s shock 40-29 win over the All Blacks in Chicago in November as proof they were only human.
Hansen, though, hit back pretty quickly. ‘I’m pretty happy that our guys got some confidence beating Ireland in Ireland,’ he quipped.
‘You’re clutching at straws if that’s how you are selecting teams. You pick players who can do the job you want them to do and play the style of game you want to play.’
Claiming there were no major surprises in Gatland’s squad with its ‘big ball-carriers’ in the middle of the pack and ‘grunty forwards’ Hansen admitted England captain Dylan Hartley, who was omitted, would have been an ‘asset’.
He rejected the idea that Gatland, who has stepped down as Wales coach to focus on the Lions tour, would unleash an expansive game in New Zealand.
‘I’d expect we’ll get a similar game-style to whatever we’ve got when we’ve played a Warren Gatland team,’ he said.
‘I think they’ll tell us they will [be expansive], but I think they will want to win up front first.’
Hansen rates the 2017 Lions squad as one of the strongest in recent memory and admitted to being impressed by the depth at Gatland’s disposal for the tour, which includes three Tests against the All Blacks but has questioned how the touring side will cope with the pressure of expectations in New Zealand.
‘I think this is the best British and Irish Lions that we’ve seen come here for a long, long time,’ Hansen told reporters at Christchurch’s Rugby Park yesterday.
‘There is depth all the way through, that’s why people like [Dylan] Hartley and some of the Scottish boys have missed out because there’s so much depth.
‘It’s going to be a very good side and they’ll come with a lot of expectation, which I think is going to be interesting to see how they cope with that.
‘A lot more expectation than they’ve been used to because people expect them to win.’
Hartley has led England to backto-back Six Nations titles, a world record-equalling 18 successive Test match wins and a 3-0 series whitewash against Australia Down Under. But Gatland opted to look elsewhere, naming Rory Best, Jamie George and Ken Owens as the chosen hookers.
‘There are always going to be surprises, with some people being selected and some people not being selected.
‘And that comes down to people’s opinions, doesn’t it? The guy that has the last say is the guy that is usually coaching them.
‘I think he (Hartley) would have been an asset, but I’m not picking the team.’
THE Lions have not won a Test series against New Zealand since 1971 — and they have only beaten them six times in 113 years — but Hansen has no doubt about the challenge they will pose his players in June and July.
‘You’ve only got to look at the five-eighths [fly-halves]. A guy like Finn Russell has been playing really well and can’t even make the team because they’ve got [Johnny] Sexton, [Owen] Farrell and [Dan] Biggar there. You have also got young [George] Ford missing out.
‘There is a lot of depth right through all the positions. The locks are the same, the loosies [back-row forwards] are the same.
‘[The squad] is pretty much what you would expect from Warren. He likes his big ball-carriers in the middle of the park and his big, grunty forwards, so that is what he has picked.’
Hansen is due to name a 33-man All Blacks squad for the Test series on June 8, by which time the Lions will have already played two games during a tough first Test build-up that features appointments with Super Rugby sides the Blues, Crusaders, Highlanders and Chiefs, plus the Maori All Blacks.
‘Our job is to make sure we keep a good eye on what they do in the games they play prior to us and try and get a read,’ Hansen said.
‘We have to get on with our job, make sure our game is as good as it can be as soon as it can be, and make sure that we’ve got as much covered as we possibly can.
‘There are a number of people who are playing very, very well who haven’t been All Blacks, and there are a number of All Blacks who are playing well.’
‘You are clutching at straws if that is how you select teams’