Hansen’s respect continues
AUCKLAND: Even before the All Blacks left for Sydney, coach Steve Hansen was talking about the threat the Wallabies possess, and that continued when the team landed on Sunday and it continued again yesterday before the first Bledisloe Cup test.
What has been especially notable is that there has been no baiting of rival coach Michael Cheika, with whom Hansen has had — in the media anyway — an often combustible relationship.
Instead, the All Black coach was charm personified as he doubled down on his assertion that the Wallabies should be recognised as favourite at ANZ Stadium.
Some of it is simple; as Hansen said yesterday, the Wallabies won the most recent time these two teams played against each other — a 2318 victory for the home side in Brisbane in October — but there also seems to be a growing respect from the New Zealand coach regarding the improvements the Australians have made.
They showed in their narrow series loss to Ireland in June they can be hard to stop when at the top of their game.
There is also a new, more physical, edge, led by locks Izack Rodda and Adam Coleman. That hardness is something Cheika has been striving for since he took over from Ewen McKenzie in November, 2014. Now it appears his team have finally found it.
‘‘I think they’re a good side,’’ Hansen said
‘‘They’ve improved a heck of a lot. They’ve done a lot of work on their running lines. Their core setpiece roles, and their scrum has got better. Looking at it against Ireland, they’ve quickened up their lineout a lot and obviously their kicking game is good so obviously we’re going to have to put a lot of pressure on all those areas to compete.’’
Asked whether the rocksolid Crusaders midfield partnership of Goodhue and Ryan Crotty might give the All Blacks an advantage over Kurtley Beale and Hodge, the latter starting at No 13 after recently playing a utility role, Hansen said: ‘‘It might give us a little bit of an advantage but they’ve got quality players, haven’t they? Reece Hodge has been in the squad a long time. He’s played at secondfive, he’s played on the wing, he’s played at fullback. I think they understand how he plays’’.
Hansen was also asked about the players’ motivation for tests and his role in it. He said that it was not his job to motivate his
players —at this level they have to do it themselves.
And as for whether his naming the Wallabies favourites was to trigger mental ‘‘cues’’? Hansen was not having that either.
‘‘I think they’re aware of it. They lost last time to them so you don’t have to give them any mental cues. I was just being honest. If it’s a horse race and the other horse wins the race he’s got to be the favourite [next time].
‘‘We haven’t played them [in 2018] yet,’’ was Hansen’s response to the question of the All Blacks’ Bledisloe Cup dominance since 2003.
‘‘You can get caught up in the past or you can focus on what’s happening right now. You’ve got two quality teams who are going headtohead.’’ — NZME