1
Hansen: All Blacks know about Nigel Owens' 'idiosyncrasies'
All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen isn’t worried about Nigel Owens’ refereeing this weekend, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a fan of the Welshman.
ADVERTISEMENT
Hansen was speaking on Thursday at a press conference in the team hotel after announcing the All Blacks squad to face Ireland in their quarter-final on Saturday.
Owens – World Rugby’s best known and most celebrated referee – takes charge. Some Irish commentators have been wary of the appointment, with the consensus being that his selection favours New Zealand’s brand of free-flowing rugby.
One thing is clear, Hansen is happy with the man in the middle.
“Watch out for his sense of humour,” Hansen told reporters. “He’s pretty good with the one-liners.”
“You’re focusing on the wrong things if you’re worrying about the referee.
“He has his idiosyncrasies. We know about them, Ireland know them but what I like about Nigel is that he’s shown over the years that he is good under pressure. It will be a big-pressure game and we’re happy we have got him for this occasion.”
“Come the final whistle one (team) will go right and one will go left. As the Pink Panther said, stage right would be the way to go. We all understand that.
ADVERTISEMENT
Time for WR to make a de-selection of one of their big name refs? – asks former referee Paul Smith #RWC2019 #RWC?? https://t.co/lHZajTMsfw
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) September 29, 2019
“I caught up with (Ireland’s defence coach) Andy Farrell yesterday and had a yarn with him and in that conversation, that was brought up. One of us will be going home. But that’s just the cold, hard facts about the World Cup.
“We have experienced it (going out) ourselves in ’07 and there’s no guarantees we won’t experience it again. Ireland are in a situation where they haven’t gone past a quarter-final so they will be doing their darndest not to go home. We’ll be the same.
“You just hope it’s a good a game of rugby that excites the tournament, that is not affected by cards and, at the end of it, no one has got any excuses. You then just have to take your fate on the chin.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Comments on RugbyPass
The URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to comments