Hansen defends All Blacks

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has hit back at allegations of dirty play from his side in Saturday night’s runaway 52-11 victory over France to open their June international series.

France wing Remy Grosso suffered a reported double fracture to his cheekbone after a second-half collision with All Blacks flanker Sam Cane and replacement prop

Ofa Tu’unagfasi which visiting coach Jacques Brunel described as ‘‘dangerous’’ and ‘‘illegal’’. Cane was penalised for the incident, but not yellow-carded.

Earlier French lock Paul Gabrillagues had been sent to the sinbin for what looked a far more innocuous high hit on midfielder Ryan Crotty – a call that changed the match with the All Blacks scoring two quick tries to ignite a second-half scoring blitz. Hansen’s men ran in seven tries to win the second half 44-0.

Yesterday Hansen bit back at those allegations, describing the incident in which Cane appeared to initially collect Grosso high with his arm and then Tu’ungafasi strike him with his shoulder as accidental and part of the ‘‘fluid’’ nature of the game.

Hansen also shrugged off suggestions that the world’s No 1 side played the game on the wrong side of the legality line.

‘‘I can understand they’ll be a little bit miffed when their guy got yellow-carded, and as I said last night I don’t think [he] should have been yellow-carded, and nor do I think Ofa should have been yellow-carded either,’’ said the All Blacks coach.

‘‘Our game is really fluid, there’s movement in it, and when you get two guys coming in to make a tackle on one, things can change late. That’s what happened.’’

It’s understood Brunel also softened his stance on the Grosso incident yesterday, telling French reporters that after viewing further angles of the play he thought it was ‘‘accidental’’.

Tu’ungafasi sent out a message to Grosso on Twitter, saying: ‘‘It wasn’t my intention to hurt you. I’m also gutted that I didn’t get to see u after the game and u weren’t well for me to visit u in hospital this morning before we left.’’

The All Blacks coach also shrugged off continued suggestions that his side embraces illegal tactics.

‘‘We’ve been called cheats for 100 years, and if you keep winning people have got to find reasons.

‘‘Like Richie McCaw was the biggest ‘cheat’ ever, but he didn’t cheat. He just played to the letter of the law.

‘‘You’ve just got to roll with that stuff and not take too much notice of it,’’ he said. Steve Hansen