Hitting back All Black coach calls Gatland desperate in Murray row
Coaches clash over claim Lions’ Murray was target All Blacks ‘want to play hard but we play fair’
Steve Hansen, the All Blacks head coach, has labelled his British and Irish Lions counterpart, Warren Gatland, as “desperate” as the war of words between the two coaches escalated ahead of the second Test.
Gatland had claimed New Zealand’s players dangerously targeted Lions scrum-half Conor Murray during the All Blacks’ 30-15 win in the first Test in Auckland last Saturday, aiming for his standing leg when he was box-kicking in a tactic that he believed could have ended the Irishman’s career. Those allegations so incensed Hansen that he called a radio station to hit back at his fellow New Zealander.
“These are predictable comments from Gatland,” Hansen told Radio Sport NZ. “Two weeks ago we cheated in the scrums, last week it was blocking and now he’s saying this. It’s really, really disappointing to hear it because what he is implying is that we are intentionally going out to injure somebody and that is not the case.
“We’ve never been like that and as a New Zealander I would expect him to know the New Zealand psyche. It’s not about intentionally trying to hurt anybody, it’s about playing hard and fair.
“Wasn’t it a great Test match? Both sets of players earned the respect of each other in a physical contest and at the time no one was complaining about anything that was off key. The fans that watched it loved it so it’s just really disappointing to hear him say that and to take away the gloss of not only the Test match but from his own team’s performance as well. I guess he might be a bit desperate but I’m not sure why he is saying it.”
Gatland had raised the issue on Sunday night after the squad arrived in Wellington ahead of their match against the Hurricanes today and said he intended to speak to match referee Jérôme Garcès ahead of the second Test on Saturday.
The 53-year-old highlighted a number of incidents where New Zealand players Jerome Kaino and Sam Whitelock targeted Murray, saying: “I’d hate to see someone dive at his leg and have him blow a knee and then wreck his rugby career.”
Hansen, however, insisted his side wanted to play “hard but fair” but insisted his players would never deliberately intend to injure opponents.
“Rugby is about playing within the laws and in this case we are trying to charge the kick down and/or tackle him,” Hansen (right) added. “Both those things are legal. That’s what the game is built around.
“Just because he’s one of their best players doesn’t mean he has the right to go around the park without being charged down or tackled. I don’t know where he is coming from. I wouldn’t expect it to be a topic of conversation with the officials because it wasn’t at the game. “There’s a guy who is watching for foul play all the time and if he’d seen foul play he would have indicated it to the referee in the course of the 80 minutes.
“It wasn’t, it never was and it never will be as long as I am involved with the All Blacks. Yes we want to play hard but we will play fair and we will challenge teams to do the same to us.”
Lions centre Robbie Henshaw, meanwhile, suggested he did not agree that the All Blacks were being overly physical in the first Test.
“For us, also, physicality is one of the fundamental components in rugby. Everyone uses it in abundance,” he said. “I don’t think New Zealand take it too far, sometimes in the moment people may get their entry wrong, stick out an arm and hit someone high. It’s not intentional and people make mistakes. But obviously it’s down to the officials what happens on the pitch, and needs to be taken care of.”