All Black coach Steve Hansen.
It was no consolation at all to All Blacks coach Steve Hansen that a post-game meeting with last week’s referee Jaco Peyper yielded a frank “mea culpa” from the South African whistle-blower.
Hansen factored a poor refereeing performance into the contributing reasons for a sub-par All Black performance in last week’s 12-12 draw with the Wallabies in Sydney to open the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup series.
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But it was by no means the only factor, or even the main one, Hansen admitted today after naming a starting XV for Saturday night’s return clash at Eden Park featuring three changes. It’s notable, though, that nobody has been dropped on the basis of that poor performance at the Olympic stadium, with Liam Messam and Ryan Crotty coming in for the injured Jerome Kaino and Ma’a Nonu respectively, and Conrad Smith returning after his dash to Wellington for the birth of his baby boy.
Hansen today challenged his All Blacks to be better – in fact, to be much better – than they’d been last Saturday night when their 17-test win streak came to a disappointing end in a pretty uninspiring test match all-round.
And the most successful coach in world rugby did not hold back on the shortcomings of his side in Sydney, nor his expectation that they will be addressed in the Bledisloe return.
By picking pretty much them all again, he’s put the ball firmly back in their court.
“I know why we didn’t perform at the weekend,” Hansen said. “There were certain areas of our game we were very poor at, and there was another reason which we won’t go into here, but that’s been dealt with as well.”
“We’ve spoken to the referee about the scrummaging. He put his hand up, said he got the free-kicks wrong. But we can’t control [the referee], we’ve had the discussion we needed to have and moved on. It’s about us playing our game and playing it better than we played it last week.”
After declaring he wouldn’t get into the refereeing issues, Hansen was asked what Peyper had conceded he got wrong.
“Where do you want me to start?” he barked. “The free-kick he felt was wrong and he was not sure why he called pre-engage. The first yellow card was wrong – the ball was out.”
“It was a good conversation, I respect the man for his honesty… he’s no different than players – some days you have a bad day. He had a bad day at the office and put his hand up.”
“But I’ve got to emphasise, it wasn’t just his problem. We had a hell of a bad day ourselves so we’ll forget about him and concentrate on what we can do.”
The theory doing the rounds is that the All Blacks have got a higher level to go to, but for the Wallabies it’s going to be tough to do much better than the 65 percent possession they enjoyed on a rare day of dominance over the world champs up front.
“I know we can, but I don’t know how much they’ve got left to lift,” Hansen said. “We’ve just got to concentrate on us, get us right, then we take the other factors out. If we play well enough we get to control the game, and if we control the game we give ourselves a chance of winning it.”
“I’m never surprised when Australia stands up in a contest. They would come out fighting in a game of marbles. That’s the way they are and the way we are. In saying that, I understand why the game played out the way it did, because 1) we played poorly and made mistakes, and you can’t build momentum when you’re making mistakes; and 2) it wasn’t a great performance from the ref and you can’t build momentum if he’s taking it away from you.”
On the whistle this week’s is Frenchman Romain Poite, who’s taken a hard line on the Wallaby scrum in the past. Hansen had no expectation of a repeat.
“The expectation you have with your referee is that on any day they don’t come in with pre-conceived ideas. I’m assuming he’s not coming in with pre-conceived ideas. He should come in, look at the pictures and take them for what they are. If he does that it will be great.”
Again, Hansen made it more than clear that his chief gripes were around his own team’s shortcomings. Asked what bugged him about Sydney, he replied: “Just about everything. Our skills and our game structures were basically non-existent to where we would expect them to be. They’re two key areas.”
The decision to go with Crotty, for his first test start, ahead of rookie Malakai Fekitoa at No 12 had been, in the end, a pretty straightforward call.
“He’s played there a lot more than Mala, he’s comfortable there, and Mala is still learning to play there. To put him in that situation as a young footballer is probably not fair. And Ryan has played well whenever he’s played for us, so we’ve got confidence in him to do that job.”
lol a thread for our kiwi users to gang up in
Of course you got it wrong even the most one eyed SAFFA’s knew that.
Do we remember the fallout from the Eden park test when the ref received death threats?
@ MacroBok:
Nothing funny about it really the guy admitted he fucked up big time, we had them in the scums all day but he just got it wrong.
Groot, after the test you told us to stop complaining looks like we were right and you were wrong, your boy had a shocker.
@ NZINCHINA:
im just saying this ongoing argument is pointless. from the saffas and you guys about the refs. no one is going to win it, you guys have reason to feel upset, but there is no use drumming about it when refereeing is so complicated when you have numerous people coming out to defend either party, especially the scrum laws, it is just not so clear cut, im starting to hate the scrums and referees blowing skew throw ins have just messed it up even more.
@ MacroBok:
It’s not an argument it’s fact he destroyed the game as a contest and has confirmed that, if that had happened in a Bokke game his family would have been threatened, death threats, his career would be over and of course as there was at Eden park last year you would have made the old we’d have won the game if the ref hadn’t farked up, no such calls from NZ though just genuine complaints the ref was terrible.
@ NZINCHINA:
I suppose. but I dont think it is us rugby fans on here that would wish death to someone? hopefully not, its usually a section of the population that does not have anything else better to do, it would be the same for you guys when that section of your population discover the internet 😉
When south africans tell you to stop blaming the ref, laugh it off and take it with a pinch of salt mate.
@ MacroBok:
Nobody has blamed the ref for the loss, we just said he had a shocker, quiet around here this morning 😛
@ NZINCHINA:
2 The resurrection of Gerty.Another 38 years of acrimony?
@ ryecatcher:
Rye, to be fair nobody has blamed the ref for the loss, contrast that with the Eden Park test last year and what came out of the republic. Gerty cheated Peyper had a shocker big difference. Show me a post on here from a Nzer that says we didn’t win because of the ref, rewind to Eden Park last year oh dear.
@ NZINCHINA:
Tbf most of us were upset that what happened at Eden Park killer the contest.
@ NZINCHINA:
10 Oh dear indeed.Probably an incorrect perception(Remember these words)but it would appear that every post of yours comments
negatively on the refs perforformance.
I also read RUGBY STUFF a good blog where posters usually
have a lot to say about the ref.In fact,some of the posts give the
lie to your comment above that no Kiwi complained about
ref. Also have you read Pops lately?
I enjoy your passion for the game,but please bury Gerty now.
He was a shameless cheat.
Regards Rye.
@ MacroBok
We all were because we believe we are good enough to beat you without any assistance from the ref, as I’m sure you do with the Bokke.
@ ryecatcher:
Rye, please read my posts again I didn’t say we didn’t complain I said we didn’t blame the ref for the loss, we played poorly. Ok fair call re Gerty.
@ NZINCHINA:
okay. so the ref had no impact on the result. Let’s move on.
@ MacroBok:
Move on, I’m not so sure if it will so easy for the boys/coaches who had a chance to make history but there you go.
@ NZINCHINA:
so you blame the ref for not winning? lol makes your mind up
@ MacroBok:
Nope I’m just gutted that group couldn’t get a w/r which they fully deserved.
C’mon funny guy give us your smart arse retort, tell us how it really is
Like Barnes never received death threats.
Typical one eyed kiwi response.
This for the country responsible for some of the most craven and corrupt match officials of all time
Laughable.
😆
China was crying like a lye girl in Sunday not blaming the reff indeed.
Liar.
😆
@ gunther:
Is that it.
@ gunther:
You were proud of Peypers performance that’s why beating you 9 from the last 10 is just so sweet 😉
Every ref makes mistakes but for kiwis of all people to be moaning about the ref is ludicrous.
For Noodleboy to be carrying on like this is quite unseemly.
But not unexpected
😆
@ gunther:
Lol every ref makes mistakes, oh dear funny guy have you ever considered what you have written over the years about Bryce etc you gave accused them of match fixing and abused them in every possible way but now ” every ref makes mistakes” you didn’t have any credibility to start with but if you did….
North Harbour score against Southland after 37 seconds from kickoff.
Got to run, ” every ref makes mistakes” dear oh dear
18 @ NZINCHINA:
well our world record breaking run was brought to an end by a deliberate knock down by will Greenwood I think. .. We got over it
28… a deliberate knock down that was ignited by the referee
28… a deliberate knock down that was ignored by the referee
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