All Blacks coach calls for calm after uneven performances

Hansen sees positives in team’s effort this season

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen yesterday moved to allay fears his world champion side were becoming stagnant, saying the uneven performances of 2017 were just part of the natural life-cycle of the team.

The All Blacks face a resurgent South Africa at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday with injuries sweeping through a squad which has struggled to reach the levels of 2016.

They battled against the linespeed defence of a welldrilled British and Irish Lions outfit and have gone off the boil for periods in the Rugby Championship despite winning all three games.

Hansen, however, said the team’s travails were of no concern on the road to the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

“In 2016 we hit the road running,” he told reporters.

“We had a group of men who were primed and they really jumped at the opportunity.

“What has changed is (in) 2017 the game has changed Twelve months after South Africa suffered their worst defeat on home soil, confidence has been restored with coach Allister Coetzee keen to write a new chapter against the All Blacks yesterday.

“The big thing is to make sure you put yourself in a position to get (the result) and we’ve really worked hard for this one,” he said yesterday ahead of the fourth-round Rugby Championship clash in Auckland.

Coetzee took over the Springboks after they narrowly lost to the All Blacks in the 2015 World Cup semi-finals and in his first year at the helm they lost eight of 12 Tests, including a 57-15 rout by New Zealand in Durban. A year on from that record defeat, only Eben Etzebeth and Tendai Mtawarira remain in the starting line, and Coetzee’s Springboks are on a sixmatch unbeaten run with five wins and a draw in 2017. “We’ve really buried 2016 as deep as possible and we’ve moved on,” Coetzee said.

“There’s not even a handful of those guys from last year. It’s a completely different team environment, different individuals and the game, in terms of why they are Springboks and what they represent.” and we’re learning to deal with that.

“You’re always going to have a tough time at some period in your life. It would appear this is the year where we are having to find out about ourselves.”

The All Blacks have been impatient during the Rugby Championship, trying to force things at a high pace.

They shipped four unanswered tries after jumping out to a 54-6 lead after 48 minutes in the opener against Australia, then battled to a 35-29 victory in the return match against the Wallabies before a 39-22 win last week.

The latter two games involved overturning secondhalf deficits, but Hansen said that was what pleased him the most.

“When you’re behind and 15 minutes into the second half and we managed to come back and win it, and comfortably, it’s not all bad,” he said.

“Last week we scored six tries. Only one side has done that against Argentina — us.

“So it was a pretty good achievement.” against Argentina