Barrett ‘unlikely’ for ABs
Squire was described as ‘‘touch and go’’ for Saturday, while Fifita was ‘‘not feeling well this morning,’’ said Hansen.
With fellow Highlanders Tom Franklin and Shannon Frizell also floating around in the lockloose forward space, the All Blacks probably won’t need Hemopo to play in Dunedin. But they are likely to rely on Damian McKenzie to do a job for them at first five-eighth.
He had a mixed time in Barrett’s place in Wellington, although it has to be said that not many of the team covered themselves in glory. ‘‘I’d like to see a platform that he could work off,’’ Hansen said.
‘‘It would be very easy to blame Damian for what was a poor performance from the whole team and that’s not the case. What we’ve got to do is work out how did we go as coaches during the week? What did we miss? Did we get the selections right?’’
Hansen knows the answer to the last of those. It’s no.
He asked too much of forwards such as props Joe Moody and Owen Franks, flanker Sam Cane and probably even captain Sam Whitelock; none of whom had ideal preparations for this series.
‘‘To use a race horse analogy: [if you give them a] hard run the first time and then bring them back to race too early second up, they usually go no good,’’ said Hansen.
So where does that leave Hansen for the third race?
‘‘With not too many options, if they’re props. But other options. Like Sam Cane’s an example, so we’ve got options there.’’ French centre Geoffrey Doumayrou has hit out at the match officials’ decision to issue a red card to the team-mate Benjamin Fall in Saturday night’s defeat to the All Blacks.
The La Rochelle midfielder lamented the decision to dismiss the French fullback in the 12th minute of the Wellington test, which the All Blacks won, 26-13, to clinch the three-match series.
He told the AFP news agency, in a report published by French newspaper L’Equipe, that France had copped a ‘‘red card, which in my opinion is not there’’.
Doumayrou, who had a try disallowed when a video replay showed he lost the ball in a lunge for the line, said Fall was ‘‘unbalanced’’ while challenging for the ball.
He felt the duel with Beauden Barrett was ‘‘an aerial fight’’. ‘‘There is never a red card.’’ Doumayrou conceded it was ‘‘the straight application of the regulation’’ but felt the match officials should have taken into account that there had been ‘‘a fault of the All Blacks’’ with Fall ‘‘unbalanced’’ while challenging for the ball.
He also appealed for consistency, saying the All Blacks made ‘‘a lot of mistakes in their 22 area’’ and that a late charge on French halfback Morgan Parra in the second half attracted only a penalty, not a yellow card.
‘‘From one week to another, we see that it’s the same. I think it’s disappointing because I think if we [played] the whole match with 15, there was something to do.’’
Flanker Ke´ lian Galletier, one of France’s best performers, told France’s Rugby Rama website that he felt Fall ‘‘played the ball’’.