Jordie’s air skills swing it
the end of the day you can’t please everyone, so you might as well please yourself.’’
Hansen also clarified the mental state of his young fullback on the back of his incident last weekend that saw police called when he and a friend mistakenly entered the wrong house in Dunedin to eat their fast-food snacks at 5am.
‘‘It was a big week made by other people. All he did was got lost and was eating hamburgers at probably too late an hour. He learnt the lesson from that, we dealt with it pretty quickly as a group and he moved on pretty quickly.
‘‘He realises it was a stuffup, he’s been good, he’s trained well, he’s excited, a competitor, and really wants to be part of the playing group, so he’s no different to his two brothers in that department.’’
Hansen’s 23 otherwise largely picked itself. Anton LienertBrown deserved a shot at centre, in Sonny Bill Williams’ absence, because ‘‘he’s been playing particularly well’’, and also because chief rival Jack Goodhue had been battling sickness early in the week, as well as a tight hamstring.
It was a similar story at No 8 where Luke Whitelock, younger brother of new skipper Sam, was a natural choice with Jordan Tauifua still feeling his calf problem, while on the bench the inform Ngani Laumape continued their policy of carrying a midfielder and Damian McKenzie got the nod, over Richie Mo’unga, because of his ‘‘utility value’’.
Hansen was less certain about what’s coming from the French, repeating his mantra about their defensive prowess off the back of a statistically impressive Six Nations.
‘‘We know we’re playing an experienced and smart French team. We haven’t heard too much from them all week which is a good indication they’re in the house, and we know when they’re in the house they’re a dangerous unit. Statistically they’re the best defensive side in the world, and we know they can play footy when they’ve got the ball.’’
He noted their team included big, mobile props, an experienced second row, a halfback, in Morgan Parra, who was ‘‘a really good general and runs the game well’’ and a midfield combination of complementary styles in the monstrous Mathieu Bastareaud and Geoffrey Doumayrou.
Meanwhile, Morgan Parra and Maxime Medard are back in the French team for tomorrow’s test against the All Blacks at Eden Park.
Halfback Parra, hasn’t played for France since they lost 62-13 to the All Blacks in the quarterfinals of the 2015 World Cup, while fullback Medard last played for Les Bleus in 2016, on their tour to Argentina. Timaruborn tighthead prop Uini Atonio has been given the nod to start.
France:
Maxime Medard, Teddy Thomas, Mathieu Bastareaud (c), Geoffrey Doumayrou, Remy Grosso, Anthony Belleau, Morgan Parra, Fabien Sanconnie, Kelian Gourdon, Judicael Cancoriet, Yoann Maestri, Paul Gabrillagues, Uini Atonio, Camille Chat, Dany Priso. Replacements: Adrien Pelissie, Cyril Baille, Rabah Slimani, Bernard Le Roux, Alexandre Lapandry, Baptiste Serin, Jules Plisson, Gael Fickou.