RUGBY UNION

New Zealand 78 Samoa 0

Steve Hansen has cranked up the pressure on Warren Gatland by insisting the British and Irish Lions head coach is “running out of time” to perfect his Test match line-up.

The All Blacks beat Samoa 78-0 at Eden Park yesterday and then head coach Hansen set his sights on Lions counterpart Gatland once again.

Hansen again suggested he does not expect the Lions to add an extra dimension to their play, for the first in the three-Test series, in Auckland on June 24.

Claiming he expects Owen Farrell to feature at inside centre if he shakes off a troublesome thigh injury, Hansen would also not expand on what his sources were when he had suggested the Lions would

“Gatland keeps telling us he’s got something up his sleeve”

call up a clutch of extra players next week.

“Do I expect them to do something different? Well (Gatland) keeps telling us he’s got something up his sleeve other than his arm so we’ll wait and see, won’t we?” said Hansen.

“He’s started running out of time to get the practice. I’ve always said, once you have the style that works for you, you usually stick with it, so it’s going to be a big move if he changes.

“I’ll look forward to it, though, we’re sitting here and we’re finished for the weekend and we’ve come out with no injuries and we get to sit down now and get excited about what’s ahead of us which is the Lions.

“We wait 12 years for them to come around, so we don’t want to miss it and we get to watch them play the Maori, who will throw the kitchen sink at them. It’s a big game for the Lions again and then all the banter’s out of the way, isn’t it? We’re into it and I can’t wait.” Warren Gatland is expected to draft as many as six extra players on to the British and Irish Lions tour next week.

The Lions’ reinforcements would be primed to take seats on the bench in Tuesday’s match against Waikato against the Chiefs, to ease the pressure on the tourists’ Test match 23.

The three-Test series against New Zealand starts on June 24 and Tuesday’s Chiefs match represents a heavy burden after today’s Maori All Blacks encounter in Rotorua.

Gatland had initially raised the idea of adding a clutch of players to his Lions squad ahead of the Chiefs encounter back in September.

Now the head coach is understood to be ready to do just that, with Wales currently in New Zealand and Scotland touring Australia and Fiji.