Lions made us stronger: Hansen
up to, having now been the team confirmed to go to Cape Town for a quarterfinal.
The only potential dampener for the Hurricanes was a potential citing for second five-eighth Ngani Laumape. Crusaders coach Scott Robertson said after the match that Laumape had been cited for a tackle that TMO Glenn Newman ruled chest-high during the match.
The incident was typical of a night when the Crusaders didn’t seem to get the rub of the green. They conceded 16 penalties to the Hurricanes’ seven and mixed that in with some uncharacteristic inaccuracy.
It leaves them with a home quarterfinal – assuming the Lions beat the Sharks overnight – against the Highlanders. Hardly great reward for winning 14 of their 15 games this season.
‘‘Look, if it was fair they wouldn’t be changing the draw and the format of Super Rugby [for 2018] would they? There’s your answer,’’ If you’re the Wallabies and Springboks, you just might want to put that ticker-tape order on the back-burner.
For those anticipating the All Blacks’ apparent decline becoming a permanent state of affairs, they might best heed these words from coach Steve Hansen on the Lions series stalemate: ‘‘We’ll come out of it a lot stronger. Whilst it wasn’t the result we all wanted, it may well have been what we all needed.’’
Needed? Are you listening Australia? the Hurricanes hung tough. That hasn’t always been a trademark of theirs but you couldn’t fault their tenacity on this occasion.
Beauden Barrett was ruled out an hour before kickoff, then Aso went down in the warm-up. Wes Goosen came off the bench and onto the wing, Nehe Milner-Skudder went to fullback and Jordie Barrett took Aso’s place at centre.
They all played their part – Jordie Barrett particularly – in achieving a memorable victory. Barrett had a try, kicked four conversions and a penalty and, again, looked a seasoned campaigner, rather than a 20-year-old in his first year of Super Rugby.
‘‘There was touches of little bits of inspiration from all sorts of people in different places. But mixed in with that was some pretty average stuff as well,’’ said Boyd. ‘‘It was a genuine contest, wasn’t it? It wasn’t pretty, but it was a contest.’’ Phil Gifford opinion - pB2 You too South Africa? Any hint of satisfaction from the New Zealanders’ principal Rugby Championship rivals on the back of a Lions series in which the All Blacks managed to win just one test should surely be tempered by Hansen’s words.
The bear hasn’t just been poked, it has been stirred.
Remember, this is a coach who, even on the back of a matchup being labelled here, there and everywhere a failure, has lost just five of the 72 tests his All Blacks have played in the near six seasons he has been in charge.
It’s a tough audience he plays for. He caught the British and Irish Lions about as strong as they’ve been, maybe since 1971, maybe since ever; had a horrible run with injuries (Dane Coles, Ben Smith and Ryan Crotty the principal defections); got the rough end of the officiating pineapple from possibly the greatest French injustice perpetrated on Kiwi soil since the Rainbow Warrior; and still ended up sharing the honours. Glass half-empty? Or half-full? Yes, it wasn’t what the Kiwi public expects from its All Blacks. Heck, it wasn’t what the back-toback world champions expect from themselves. Their funeral faces at the end said it all. If it felt like a loss, smelt like a defeat and waddled like a disappointment, it sure as heck wasn’t something to celebrate.
Stalemate? This is the All Blacks. They only do checkmate.
But Hansen’s attitude speaks to the All Blacks’ next move, which will take place, initially, in Bledisloe I in Sydney on August 19; and continue just seven days later in Dunedin for the rematch.
They have taken some punches. Had their noses bloodied. But they’re canvas.
When we speak, just a few days have passed since the Lions series, yet Hansen is already immersed in planning for the Rugby Championship resumption in just a few weeks. He expects a much stronger Wallaby foe in 2017. The Boks too. The job never stops.
‘‘There are things we can do better,’’ he said. ‘‘The big thing is we’ve faced something we don’t face very often.
‘‘We had to work our way through dealing with line-speed. Andy Farrell’s defence was very about to get up off the good – a full-press right across the park. The first test we dealt with it easily by coming off 9; the second, with only 14 on the park, it’s really hard to tell how we dealt with it because we didn’t play enough rugby; and the third we dealt with it in the right way, but our execution was off.
‘‘There are learnings that will be very important going forward, because it won’t be the last time we face line-speed.’’ Besides, the knife cut both ways. ‘‘They didn’t handle our line-
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