NZ’s ‘calm heads’ can lead world – Hansen

best team,’’ Bates told time.

‘‘We’d talked about that over the last 12 months, and were on the same page going into England, but my heart wasn’t in it as much as it should be. I knew I didn’t have the energy the captaincy deserved.’’

NZC knew of ongoing tension between Bates and Tiffen, but insisted the latter was the right person to keep coaching the team.

Bates handed over the reins to Amy Satterthwaite ahead of the Australian tour late last year.

At the time NZC’s head of high performance, Bryan Stronach, said news of Bates and Tiffen having their differences was no surprise.

‘‘Yes, we were aware. The team was under the pump, playing England who are arguably the best team in the world and we wanted to be doing better,’’ he said.

‘‘In one way it was good, they were stressed and trying to figure out the right way forward for the team. At times the captain and coach have differing opinions on how to get there, that’s pretty natural and happens in a lot of teams.’’ Radio Sport at the

The Sydney Morning Herald this week reported a potential tie-up with Australian billionaire Andrew All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says New Zealand can lead the world in how it reacts in the wake of 50 people being killed in a terrorist attack.

The Christchurch-based Hansen said ‘‘calm heads and loving minds and coming together’’ was what was required.

‘‘It’s an opportunity to change ‘‘Twiggy’’ Forrest for the new competition.

While fans will feel some sympathy for the Sunwolves, given they have proved competitive this season after struggling to win games since joining the tournament in 2016, they will be rapt that Sanzaar has finally returned to a round-robin format.

Gone is the convoluted conference system that even players found difficult to understand unless they returned to the Sanzaar manual for a refresh of how the rules worked. With the three conferences wiped out, each team will play every other team home or away each season.

This means 13 matches for each team, with two byes, in the regular season and the number of home and away matches varying between six to seven based on a two-year alternate match schedule. things, to make things better,’’ Hansen told the New Zealand Herald.

‘‘It would appear that that is happening. But the key thing is that continues to happen for a long time.

‘‘This hasn’t just affected Christchurch, it’s affected everybody in New Zealand. What we need from every individual from our country is calm heads and loving minds and

This will lead to a new top-six finals series. The top two teams at the end of the regular season will receive a bye in the first week of the sudden-death phase, before hosting the semifinals against the winners of the knockout round between teams ranked three to six.

Marinos said Sanzaar had held a ‘‘substantial review’’ of Super Rugby over the last 18 months.

‘‘The decision to further consolidate the competition format to a 14-team round robin was not taken lightly,’’ he said.

‘‘It has involved some detailed analysis and a thorough review of the current and future rugby landscape, tournament costs, commercial and broadcast considerations and player welfare in line with our Strategic Plan.’’

Sanzaar has tinkered with the coming together and understanding that we’ve got to respect each other and love each other and care for each other.

‘‘If we can all do that it doesn’t matter what colour our skin is or what religious beliefs we have. We’ll lead the world – it’s not just a New Zealand problem, is it? It’s a world problem and it’s been brought home competition on a regular basis since it was launched with 12 teams in 1996.

The decision to try to reach into new markets resulted in Super Rugby being expanded to 14 teams in 2006, and 15 between 2011 and 2015.

When the competition involved 18 teams for the next two seasons, it was clear it was too cumbersome and the extra travel unpopular.

Super Rugby was contracted to 15 teams when the Western Force (Australia), Cheetahs and Kings (both South Africa) were dropped in late 2017.

While the JRFU’s decision not to underwrite the Sunwolves was a major blow, it’s also believed South Africa objected to the Japanese team’s inclusion due to the extra travel demands. to us because of one idiot. The best thing we can do to fight it is just stamp it out,’’ Hansen said.

Hansen spoke after the likes of All Blacks TJ Perenara, Sonny Bill Williams and Crusaders players Sam Whitelock and Kieran Read voiced their thoughts and support following the shootings at two mosques in Christchurch.