Hansen blows whistle on Aussies
What a load of rubbish, says All Blacks coach Steve Hansen.
He’s dismissed reports out of the Wallabies camp that he held a secret meeting with referee Romain Poite, ahead of Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup test in Wellington.
Just as he says there’s no foundation to allegations New Zealand prop Owen Franks eye-gouged Australia’s Kane Douglas.
Franks has not been cited for the first-half incident, in which his left hand made contact with Douglas’ face during an All Blacks lineout drive.
Wallaby coach Michael Cheika said on Saturday that Franks’ actions were blatant, before Australia’s media contingent were tipped off about an official complaint to World Rugby.
That related to reports Hansen and an assistant had met with Poite ahead the test, without Cheika being informed. That would have contravened World Rugby’s regulations, had it happened. Hansen’s adamant it did not. However, he did meet with Jaco Peyper in Wellington, who’d refereed the previous Saturday’s test in Sydney and was a touch judge at Westpac Stadium.
‘‘It’s quite sad that that’s come out, because it’s not true. Unless you say ‘g’day Romain’ in the morning [constitutes a clandestine meeting], he stayed here at this hotel,’’ Hansen said yesterday.
‘‘But I did have a meeting with Jaco Peyper this week, at his request. Crono [All Blacks scrum coach Mike Cron] and I got asked by him to review some stuff he had seen in our game. I’m a firm believer that we’re here to support the referees and help them.
‘‘It’s a difficult game to ref, so why wouldn’t you have the meeting? But certainly didn’t have one with Romain Poite. We don’t meet the ref, haven’t done for about 18 to 24 months because it’s just a waste of time.’’
Asked where the story might’ve come from Hansen said: ‘‘I’m not sure, you’d have to ask Mr Cheika.’’
But his best response came when asked if it had been upsetting for a false allegation to surface.
‘‘Oh, terribly, terribly. I’m shattered. We’ve got to be able to talk about something better than that, don’t we?’’
As for Franks, Hansen said the fact Sanzaar had deemed there were no incidents from the match that warranted further review or sanction meant there wasn’t a lot to be said about that either.
‘‘I’ve seen the footage and I agree with the independent person who said there’s nothing to answer for,’’ said Hansen.
‘‘I mean you’ve got to be really, really careful until you see all the views. There’s a process and that process has been followed and whoever the citing commissioner was has obviously seen all the angles and believes there’s nothing to answer for.
‘‘In the same game you can go to two or three other lineouts where they’re driving and the same thing happens.
‘‘It’s an unfortunate by-product, I think, of the mauling rules that we have, because the only way you can get there [to the ball] is through clambering over the top and then that creates a response.
‘‘People try and pull them out of the way and they only thing they can use is the head area. We’ll look at that and try and make sure that we don’t go around that area because it creates a problem, but if there’s no case to answer, there’s no case to answer.’’
Poite viewed the incident from point blank range and no action was taken.
However, Cheika suggested it was obvious and that some sort of post-match sanction would be likely.