Shields bats away taunts from All Blacks coach

Ignorance may well be bliss for Brad Shields.

If you or I were mentioned in connection with All Blacks’ selection, we’d probably know about it. In the case of the Hurricanes captain, he insisted not.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has his mischievous side and New Zealand players, such as Shields, who commit their futures elsewhere can be targets for that. As Shields found himself on Sunday when Hansen, not for the first time, said he might’ve been an All Black, had he not thrown his lot in with Wasps and England.

The first was last year, when Shields was said to have turned down a midweek game in France. Shields was on paternity leave at the time, pulling out of some Barbarians commitments to be at the birth of his first child.

Hansen was at it again on Sunday, saying in a radio interview the loose forward ‘‘probably would have made this team this year’’.

‘‘I wish him all the best . . . he wants to play test rugby, he obviously didn’t see a future here,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘[But] straight away Jerome Kaino retired, Reado (Kieran Read) is injured, Liam Squire hasn’t played a lot of rugby this year. The six/ eight role has become a focus for us this year.

‘‘That’s the thing about the All Blacks – you’ve got to stay resilient because you are always up against someone else as good if not a little better . . . if you are not prepared to wait for the opportunity and keep working at it you are not going to get it.’’

Shields eventually grew tired of seeing raw athletes such as Akira Ioane, and now Shannon Frizell, selected ahead of him. Perhaps he could’ve waited till he was 50. In the end he decided 27 was old enough.

‘‘To be honest, that’s the first I’ve heard of it,’’ Shields said yesterday when Hansen’s quotes were put to him.

‘‘It is what it is. I’ve made my decision and I’m confident it’s the right one and just moving on from that now and [we’re playing the] Crusaders this week, so looking forward to that.’’

Feigning no prior knowledge is a familiar tactic in these circumstances. Although it’s probably a smarter option than engaging in a slanging match.

‘‘People are entitled to their opinion and I’ve just got to move on, like I already have. I’ve made my decision and I’ve come to grips with that for a while now,’’ Shields said.