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'He's trying to put pressure on referees externally... they don't need coaches doing what he is doing'

By Online Editors
New Zealand coach Steve Hansen (Photo by Getty Images)

New Zealand boss Steve Hansen has accused South Africa counterpart Rassie Erasmus of trying to pressure referees into preferential treatment towards the Springboks.

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Back-to-back reigning world champions New Zealand will launch the defence of the Webb Ellis Cup by taking on South Africa in Yokohama on Saturday.

Springboks head coach Erasmus this week insisted New Zealand have for years received soft officiating as referees entered matches with the “preconceived idea” that the All Blacks would win.

A frustrated Hansen offered a withering assessment of Erasmus’s comments, hoping that French official Jerome Garces will not be swayed by the Springbok influence.

“It’s pretty obvious what they are trying to do; whilst I have a lot of respect for South Africa and Rassie, I don’t agree with what he’s doing,” said Hansen.

(Continue reading below…)

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“He’s trying to put pressure on the referees externally, and they are under enough pressure already. They don’t need coaches to be doing what he’s doing.

“It doesn’t matter who is the ref, as a coach or as a team… you can always find things after a game that they didn’t do and you can get emotional about it and think they are taking it out on you and not the opposition. We’ve done it ourselves.

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“But at the end of the day, they go out to do the best they can do. Yes, they don’t get it right all they time, and we have suffered from that. But it’s just like other teams. It’s a big game and we just need to let the referee get on with it.”

Asked if he would hope the World Cup officials are strong-willed enough to ignore any such influence, Hansen added: “Well, they are not stupid people at all, so you’d like to hope so. That’s all I can say about that really.”

Beauden Barrett will start at full-back for New Zealand’s Pool B opener against the in-form Springboks. The 28-year-old slots into the 15 shirt to accommodate attacking playmaker Richie Mo’unga at flyhalf, with stellar full-back Ben Smith taking a seat on the bench.

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Ryan Crotty starts at inside centre with the back-to-back world champion All Blacks boasting three hugely-talented playmakers in their starting backline. Sonny Bill Williams takes a seat on the bench, with Anton Lienert-Brown partnering Crotty in the centres from the off.

Sevu Reece will make his World Cup debut on his fourth cap, with fellow wing George Bridge featuring in just his sixth Test match. Matt Todd has a sore shoulder, so Shannon Frizell steps up to take a seat on the bench.

Hansen backed star centre Williams to step off the bench and hand the All Blacks an extra dimension – just as he did in the 2015 final when New Zealand defeated Australia 34-17 to retain the crown they had lifted in 2011. “Sonny hasn’t played much over the last six weeks so he will give us something different off the bench. He will bring us something different.

“It’s a great opportunity that is similar to what he did in the final four years ago. I don’t think we have got a No1 starting XV, we have got a group of 23 players we will use depending on who we’re playing. We will chop and change, that was our point in selecting our 31. We wanted the ability to do different things with different people.”

– Press Association 

WATCH: Neil Back reflects on England’s 2003 triumph in the first episode of the new RugbyPass series, Rugby World Cup Memories

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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