Games continue

‘‘If I talk to you about it then I’m applying pressure to him in the media, and that’s kinda like bullying him, and I don’t want to do that,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘I’ll quietly talk to him on Friday. There are areas we’ll talk about, and they’ll be consistent with what everyone talked about in March.’’ Game, Hansen. Then came allegations about blocking.

‘‘When you’re talking about blocking, do you mean the back lifter getting in front of the jumper when they’re doing a maul, or the tackler blocking the ball getting out ... so you didn’t want to talk about those things.’’

Serve broken, with his own concerns about Lions tactics aired.

But the All Blacks coach didn’t stop there, turning Gatland’s spotlight on himself.

‘‘The rule says as long as you Gatland’s the illegal don’t change your direction of running you’re entitled to run back and help your team-mate ... But if you run five metres to get in front of someone, that’s dopey, and in that case Gats is quite right.

‘‘It happens every week. If you look at the Samoa game it happened to us. I’m sure if Warren was willing and able to look at his own team closely, they probably do it.’’

Hansen pointed out that the referee has the toughest job in the game, that they’re human and make the odd mistake and that all he wanted was for them to stick by how they said they were going to rule the game back in March.

Then he added (again): ‘‘There’s no point trying to bully the referees publicly in the media. We talk about the things we need to talk about in private.’’ Advantage, Hansen. It wasn’t all pistols at 12 paces. There was even a little love from Hansen when asked about Gatland’s assertion he is worried.

‘‘Pretty cool, calm and excited,’’ he said of his state of mind. ‘‘Worry is a wasted emotion because if the thing you’re worrying about has happened, you need to fix it, so there’s no point worrying about it. And if it hasn’t happened, then get a plan so you don’t have to worry about it.

‘‘But that’s good feedback from Warren. I appreciate it.’’

Across town, Gatland chance to respond.

‘‘If I’m getting up his nose, then that’s a nice position to be in,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m not worried about Steve. He can say whatever he likes in the media.

‘‘We know it’s going to be a tough encounter so let’s let the rugby do the talking. There’s been enough trash talk.’’

Six-all, time for the tie-break. had a