Ref Poite before test

the information, Hansen said: “I’m not sure, you’d have to ask Mr Cheika.”

Asked if he was upset at the allegation, Hansen said: “Oh, terribly. Terribly. Shattered. We’ve got to be able to talk about something better than that, surely.”

Another issue that may upset Cheika further is prop Owen Franks’ escape from a Sanzaar citing after footage showed his hand coming into contact with lock Kane Douglas’ face in a maul. Cheika suggested it was an obvious foul-play incident.

“I’ve seen the footage and I agree with the independent person who said there is nothing to answer for,” Hansen said. “You’ve got to be really, really careful until you see all the views. Social media, I think, were the people who alerted everyone to it and they certainly don’t get all the views.

“There’s a process and that process has been followed. In the same game, you can go to two or three lineouts where they’re driving and the same thing happened. It’s an unfortunate byproduct, I think, of mauling, because the only way you can get there is by clambering over the top and then that creates a response.

“People try to pull them out of the way and the only thing they can use is the head area. We’ll look at that and try to ensure we don’t go to that area because it creates a problem, but if there’s no case to answer, there’s no case to answer.”

The test was notable for niggle between the two teams, but Hansen said there was little in it.

“At times, people might have been overly keen but it was all push and shove . . . there’s nothing really in it.”