Hansen: Take a chill pill

Calm the heck down everybody, this Lions test decider is not the big deal you’re all making it out to be.

Smokescreen or brutally honest revelation? You be the judge, but that was the somewhat surprising message from All Blacks coach Steve Hansen yesterday ahead of their last major training hitout of the week.

Tomnorrow night at Eden Park – a ground where they haven’t lost in 23 years, and 39 tests – the All Blacks will try to avoid becoming just the second New Zealand team in over a century to lose a series to the British and Irish Lions.

The All Blacks coach was once a policeman in a former life, and loves to use his previous vocation for perspective at times like this when a situation threatens to squeeze the life out of his side. Given the history, given last week’s shock second-test defeat in Wellington, and given the massive northern hemisphere media attention, Saturday’s Eden Park showdown very much qualifies as one of those occasions.

‘‘It’s not the first time we’ve lost,’’ declared Hansen in response to a fairly innocent question asking how he was feeling. ‘‘I’ve read a lot of stories this week and you would think the All Blacks had never lost a game and that the sky is falling in.

‘‘Every week there’s pressure. We’re expected to win every test match and when we win, we’re expected to win well. You’ve got to embrace that, you’ve got to walk towards that, and life tells you that we’re really only playing a rugby game.

‘‘Real pressure is when you’ve got to spend half an hour giving someone CPR and trying to save their life, and when that doesn’t work, telling their children of their father or mother that ‘sorry, we haven’t been able to save them’. What we’re doing is playing a game of rugby.’’