The All Blacks in surprise show
get dirty I’d reveal a little bit of stuff.
And that could be anything, it doesn’t have to be explosive.
Part of my role as the coach is to at times take a little bit of pressure and put some pressure on myself, and at times if I need to reverse it and put the pressure on the opposition team.
Certain things have since been revealed about players, but that happens all the time.
One thing you learn in this job is that you take the criticism and be very careful how you throw it back.
You can’t criticise the media because you never win in that situation.
So, I used that opportunity in writing the book to express how I felt at the time. If people think I was being paranoid about some of the personal stuff that went on daily then that’s their opinion.
I thought I was restrained in what I said and when I needed to defend the team I didn’t have to sling mud at the All Blacks or reveal anything that I might have known that might have potentially taken some pressure off myself or the Lions.
New Zealand is a small country and you keep your counsel. There’s little stories in the media all the time and I’m not going to say now a couple of things I could have revealed.
I’m not saying they are explosive stuff, just a little story that could have taken a little bit of attention away from what was being addressed at us every day. I didn’t say that publicly in the media, I just saved those feelings for the book. DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE A BETTER COACH NOW? I know it was tough and said it was tough. It was challenging from a personal perspective but when you talk to Kiwis, and Kiwis understand, when you back someone into a corner we come out fighting.
There is no way I was going to allow something to get the better of me. I got mentally tougher. I kind of felt like I was in a boxing match and was going to come out on top of this.
I enjoyed that challenge, I enjoyed thinking that no one was going to get the better of me, or anyone was going to split the squad or try to create controversy.
There was some pretty underhand stuff going on. It was challenging. There are one or two people I would like to get into a corner of a room on their own with me, but that might wait for another day. IS THAT FIGHTING MESSAGE A MESSAGE TO THE TEAM? This week? Yes. People have spoken about, and watched, Scotland and we can take some positives out of that performance. But we can’t expect New Zealand not to improve on that performance.