Hansen: We got a reality check
Goalkicking. Poor skill execution. Lack of ambition. An outstanding opponent. Steve Hansen has a long list of reasons his All Blacks failed to defeat the British and Irish Lions that sit well above a dodgy call or two going against them.
It’s an admirable take-it-on-thechin attitude. Strong leaders look within when campaigns don’t go to plan; weak ones grasp for ways to deflect attention from the real issues. The All Blacks simply were not good enough over three tests at home to put away a quality Lions side which took the back-to-back world champions out of their comfort zone like few others in recent times.
In the second test in Wellington poor discipline and too many inhibitions let the Lions back into the series with a 24-21 victory; on Saturday night in Auckland the New Zealanders squandered mul- tiple chances with handling errors, execution snafus and goalkicking misses, and then allowed the referee to leave the deciding test in permanent limbo when he changed a late-game decision to award the All Blacks a matchwinning penalty handy to the posts.
But yesterday, as his players dispersed back to their Super Rugby franchises for the business end of that competition, the All Blacks coach was embracing a noexcuses mentality in the wake of the dramatic, controversial 15-15 draw at Eden Park that resulted in the first ever deadlocked series between the two sides.
For the world’s No 1 team who had only ever lost one series previously (1971) against the Lions, a 1-1 stalemate felt like a defeat. In the washup the coach’s reaction reflected that.
Could it be that the All Blacks are not as good as their public have come to expect them to be?
Hansen said it was ‘‘pretty fair’’ that basic skill execution on Saturday night had been short of their standards. A double-figure handling-error tally on a favourable night simply let the Lions off the hook too many times, despite the All Blacks scoring the only two tries on the night.
‘‘We’re disappointed because we didn’t take the opportunities,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘We’re disappointed that, even though we had 14 men in the second test, we didn’t play enough. But a lot of that has to be attributed to the Lions’ ability to defend the way they do.
‘‘We’re going to get more of it. Everyone will say that’s how you play, right on the edge of the offside line, and get up there fast. That will force us to get better at it. We weren’t as good at it as we would have liked to be.
‘‘If we’d just taken a couple of metres a couple of times last night we would have scored tries. We’ve started to unlock Pandora’s box, we just didn’t get to eat the chocolates.’’
The All Blacks certainly didn’t get the rub of the officiating green in Wellington or Auckland, but Hansen took a more diverse view. ‘‘We could have won if we’d taken the opportunities we created. It was an average way for it to finish, but that’s sport. We’ve got to accept that and move on and get better at what we’re trying to do.
‘‘If we reflect on what’s been really positive for us, we’ve introduced two 20-year-olds (Jordie Barrett and Rieko Ioane), another couple of young backs (Ngani Laumape and Jack Goodhue), and we played some positive rugby last night. In the first two tests we didn’t play enough rugby.
‘‘From a long-term perspective it’s been a good series. It’s put us under a bit of pressure, some adversity, and we’ve had to deal with that as a group.’’
Hansen, though, stopped short of calling it a step backwards for the All Blacks, never mind it was the first time since 1998 they had failed to win back-to-back home tests.
‘‘We’re used to winning everything. But that’s one of the reasons this has been a great series. People get a wee sense of reality. There are other teams out there who can play rugby, especially when you combine four of them into one.
‘‘It’s pretty disrespectful to think just because we’ve drawn a series we’ve gone backwards. We had no Ben Smith, no Dane Coles, and they’re two of the best players in the world. No Ryan Crotty (for most of the series) ... We played well enough to win; we just didn’t.
‘‘People have just got to stay calm and trust we know what we’re doing. We had a bump in the road against a well-coached team full of quality athletes, but you want a few road bumps, because somewhere they’re going to hit you and you need to know how to deal with them.’’
Hansen wasn’t about to throw Beauden Barrett under the bus either, despite a mixed goalkicking series. He was six-for-six in the first test, but had five costly misses over the next two. He was also the All Blacks’ leading ball-carrier on Saturday night with 20.
‘‘Beauden missed a couple and [Owen Farrell] got all his in this test match. It would have been nice if he’d kicked them ... he’s working through a technical issue and is getting better with it. His kicking ratio was 81 percent up till last night, so you can’t complain too much.
‘‘If we sit there and say, is that the reason we lost (or drew), it’s an obvious thing to pinpoint. But we didn’t take the opportunities.’’