Hansen hails All Blacks’ ‘new-level’ attack
New Zealand coach Steve Hansen hailed his team’s stunning 46-14 World Cup quarterfinal demolition of Ireland on Saturday as a victory for a winning mentality and a disciplined pack of forwards.
The All Blacks raced out to a 22-0 halftime lead and turned the screw in the second period, as Ireland scored two late consolation tries.
“Our attack game has gone to a new level,” Hansen said, with Beauden Barrett again majestic from fullback, and wingers George Bridge and Sevu Reece involved in everything.
But the Kiwi coach said credit was due to the graft offered by a front five who outmuscled a touted Irish pack and employed a ferocious defence.
“Numbers one to five laid the platform,” he said, adding the back row got the immediate benefits, while the halfbacks and Barrett got to drive the game. It’s a real simple formula: if you don’t go forward you don’t have opportunities to control it.
“That starts with the big men doing their job well.”
“Defence is 50% of the game and probably 90% when you take in the psychological value of it,” Hansen added.
“We kept our discipline. “When they carried we got up and made our tackles, and they were punishing tackles and forced some errors.
“When you’re doing that teams start to second-guess a little bit and psychologically you get an edge.”
That edge also nullified a raucous Tokyo Stadium seemingly half-full of Ireland fans.
“The Irish are some of the best travellers in the world, they go anywhere for a party and they enjoy it, they’ve got their songs and their way of doing things.
“It was sort of like a home match feeling,” Hansen said.
Hansen also questioned the merit of experience, saying it was a “funny thing”, with Ireland having never advanced beyond the quarterfinals of a World Cup despite boasting players with huge numbers of caps.
“A lot of our young guys have been involved in championship-winning teams in Super Rugby and big moments, and that’s why you can select them with confidence,” he said.
“Their enthusiasm, excitement and ability to play the game in the form they’re in is really important, but so is leadership of the guys who’ve been through the tough moments.
“Half of our 23 have played in a knockout tournament and won it, and that was the difference.
“I’m not being disrespectful in saying this, but Ireland’s experience is of not winning, but we had 11 guys who had experience of winning.”
Turning to semifinal opponents England, who beat Australia 40-16 in the day’s first quarterfinal, Hansen said: “I’m looking forward to playing them too, now that we’ve earned the right to.
“They’ll be a massive challenge.
“We’ve got a formula that we work to.
“Test matches are hard work.
“You’ve got to take a wee bit of time to step off the merrygo-round and relax.
“We’ll do that, enjoy our moment.
“It was a special Test match — we won’t think about England until tomorrow.