Hansen calls for cool heads at Loftus

Ken Borland

The Springboks will see a new All Blacks centre pairing in front of them at Loftus Versfeld tomorrow and New Zealand coach Steve Hansen said yesterday he hopes to see a lot more calmness from his team, compared to their sometimes frenetic approach in the 36-34 Wellington defeat three weeks ago.

Ryan Crotty and Anton LienertBrown were the midfield pairing on that historic day in Wellington, but Hansen has chosen Sonny Bill Williams and Jack Goodhue to front up as the All Blacks look to avenge their first home defeat against the Springboks in New Zealand since 2009.

“The coaching staff have had to learn the same lessons as the players because obviously we haven’t taught them properly and it’s mostly been about how to get messages across. If you keep winning all the time, then you do subconsciously miss things and when you’re under the pump you don’t make the right decisions.

“You always want calmness, but it’s not always the case. It’s a skill and the more you’re under pressure the better you learn. We haven’t had a lot of adversity in recent times, so inside I’m smiling a bit about Wellington.

“Jack Goodhue is consistent, strong, very mature for a young guy, he understands the game well. He’s a classic centre who creates space for others and he’s a good defender. Sonny Bill’s a world-class player, he’s got his own set of skills, like his offloads, and his work-rate is very good, too, so I expect him to bring all of that,” Hansen said in Sandton.

The three other changes to the side that beat Argentina – Owen Franks coming back at tighthead prop, captain Kieran Read returning at No 8 and Aaron Smith starting at scrumhalf – are all part of the plan to develop more players who will be competitive at international level, according to Hansen.