All Black coach Steve Hanson with captain Richie McCaw

Steve Hansen is “dumbfounded” by Ewen McKenzie’s selection of Kurtley Beale at first-five ahead of Bernard Foley for Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup test in Sydney, suggesting the Wallabies coach might have been told to select him because of an apparent interest by rugby league.

The comments by the All Blacks coach came this afternoon ahead of the test at ANZ Stadium where Australian confidence will be high following the Waratahs’ recent Super Rugby triumph at the same venue.

NZ Herald

Foley, named on the reserves bench, kicked the late penalty against the Crusaders which clinched the title for his team, and Hansen couldn’t resist having a dig at the decision to put Beale, who played the whole season at No12, into the playmaker’s role.

He also couldn’t resist raising a question about Beale’s goalkicking, and the fact that he believes the Wallabies are putting immense pressure on themselves to win back the Bledisloe Cup, a transtasman trophy the Aussies last held in 2002.

“I was dumbfounded by it a wee bit initially, the selection,” he said. “I thought ‘why would he do that’ and I came to the conclusion that maybe Ewen doesn’t trust him [Foley] to do be able to do what he wants against us. Or if you really think about it, the other guy [Beale] is under contract and league are chasing him so you might start to think maybe the ARU has told him he’s got to pick him.

“At the end of the day it doesn’t matter why he has. Both of them are very good rugby players and Kurtley is certainly a guy who loves to do things differently. He will throw a lot of inside balls to runners so we’re going to have to make sure we look after that part of the park, particularly from second and third phase play when guys are struggling to get into position.”

“He’ll be dangerous. He’s not as good a goalkicker as Foley but I guess he’ll bring Foley on late in the game and if they need a goalkicker they’ve got the right one on at the right end of the game.”

Asked if he would select a player if the New Zealand Rugby Union told him to, Hansen replied: “No.”

Pressed on his “assertion” regarding McKenzie following orders, Hansen replied by saying it was an “assumption”.

“One guy has played there all year, the other guy has played seven tests at most in his whole career at first-five, so why would you change that? It was just a thought that came through my head and I’m sure it came through a few other peoples’.”

Asked if the All Blacks would try to rattle Beale, he said: “If we’re going to win the game we’re going to have to rattle a few of them better than they rattle us.”

Hansen, warming to his task, added: “There’s been a lot of talk about because they have won the Super Rugby they will win the Bledisloe Cup but I think that’s rubbish. I don’t think there’s any correlation at all. It’s totally different.”

He added of whether Beale’s unpredictability would help Australia: “Aussie aren’t predictable anyway. The one thing you do know about the Aussies is that they are tough.

They play tough and they like to run the ball. They’re under a lot of pressure, which they’re putting themselves under, talking about having to win the Bledisloe Cup, they haven’t won the Bledisloe Cup, ‘this is our year’ – I find that interesting. It’s no different to any other year. There’s two teams in the competition and one of them will win it and one of them will lose it, so they’ll look to run the ball and try to run us off our feet.”

Hansen said the decision to select Ben Smith at fullback ahead of Israel Dagg, a minor surprise of his own, was down to Smith’s form, particularly on the counter-attack.
He said lock Patrick Tuipulotu was unavailable due to a high ankle sprain and prop Charlie Faumuina had strep throat.

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The Wallabies are refusing to engage in All Blacks coach Steve Hansen’s pre-Bledisloe psychological warfare, instead keeping their powder dry until hostilities begin in earnest on Saturday night.

Hansen fired a succession of shots across the Tasman before departing New Zealand today, with Kurtley Beale and coaching counterpart Ewen McKenzie his two main targets.

Claiming to be ‘dumbfounded’ by Beale’s selection at five-eighth ahead of incumbent Bernard Foley, the niggly All Blacks mentor suspected McKenzie promoted the off-contract star from the bench last test to help keep him in Australian rugby.

The Wallabies, though, are saving any retaliatory strikes until kickoff, saying only that they’re backing McKenzie’s chief weapon of choice.

Halfback Nic White and inside centre Matt Toomua, who will play either side of Beale, said the classy playmaker had made a smooth transition into the No 10 role after playing inside centre during the NSW Waratahs’ successful Super Rugby campaign.

“I think a lot of people forget that he’s played 42 Tests, so he’s leaps and bounds ahead of me, so he’s dragging me along at the moment,” White said.

Toomua noted how Beale played all his schoolboy football at five-eighth, as well as several Tests in the position and the 2008 Super Rugby final as a teenager.

“He’s not going to be overawed by this by any means,” said Toomua, who will also slot into flyhalf at times during the Rugby Championship opener at ANZ Stadium.

“I’ve played a bit there myself too. In saying that, he is calling the shots and I won’t be stepping on his toes at all.”

“He is the chief playmaker and we’re more than comfortable having him there.”

A known on-field sledger, White wasn’t overly surprised by Hansen’s apparent attempt to unsettle the Wallabies.

“Yeah, I don’t know what his motives are there, but it’s obviously interesting and it’s a bit of conspiracy I guess,” he said.

“But why not plant the seed if I was him?”

Hansen also took aim at the Wallabies talking about their need to end the All Blacks’ 11-year domination of the Bledisloe Cup, but White said there was merely a level of quiet optimism in their ranks.

“Because a lot of teams have been confident coming up against the All Blacks and been done and done well,” White said.

“So it’s about that cautious confidence, but confidence goes a long way in team sport and just riding the back of the Waratahs’ success and, at the moment, Australian rugby’s in a good place.”

“So you’ve got to be confident to play your best footy but, at the same time, know they’ve got confidence in spaces and they’ve got that confidence in the tough times in games and in the pressure moments.”

“They’ll have that confidence to back their game plan and back their players, so I guess we have to match that and try to take it up a notch.”

“The Waratahs have done it all season. It’s a step up again, but I’d like to think we’re in a good place to give it a crack.”