Steve Hansen reignites war of words with Warren Gatland ahead of Wales vs All Blacks by telling him to stop coaching
New Zealand head coach believes that if Gatland hated coaching the British and Irish Lions, he probably shouldn't have been doing it in the first place
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Your support makes all the difference.All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen has reopened his war of words with former British and Irish Lions opponent Warren Gatland by telling him that if he really “hated” his return to his homeland this summer, he should probably not be in coaching.
Hansen and Gatland were involved in a mini-spat throughout the Lions series as the two New Zealanders hit back at each other through the media in a series that ended in a thrilling-yet-anti-climactic 1-1 draw.
The two will reignite their feud when the All Blacks face Wales at the Principality Stadium on 2 December in the final autumn international, but Hansen has not waited for game week to get the ball rolling after responding to Gatland’s criticism of his return home, which he blamed on the treatment of the media towards him and his family.
Having bounced back from the drawn series to win the Rugby Championship, the All Blacks will head to Europe on Friday to prepare for their end-of-season tour, but Hansen was keen to pay particular attention to Gatland’s recent comments about the summer series.
“I've only just heard it because I don't read too much about what coaches are saying and doing,” Hansen told New Zealand's Radio Sport.
“Why would you hate coaching the Lions? If you hate coaching, don't do it. I love coaching any team I've been involved in - that's the reason I'm doing it.
“I'm lucky enough to coach the All Blacks, which is fantastic, if you are lucky enough to coach the Lions it is also fantastic.”
Gatland has also faced something of a player backlash, with Lions forward Sean O’Brien claiming that they should have claimed a 3-0 win, while England No 8 Billy Vunipola – who missed the tour through injury – believed that a series whitewash would have been possible had Eddie Jones been in charge of the tour.
After returning to Wales duty this week, Gatland has had to deal with plenty of controversy already following the change to the Senior Players Selection Policy and his 36-man squad selection for the autumn internationals – which saw the experienced trio of Jamie Roberts, Luke Charteris and Scott Williams dropped.
But with Gatland facing further scrutiny, Hansen warned that if he still has ambitions to coach the All Blacks once he leaves his current role in 2019, he must get used to facing such criticism and learn to brush it off.
“Welcome to our world,” Hansen explained. “You are under constant pressure, constant scrutiny. People expect you to be able to front up and do the job well.
“In the All Blacks' case, we are expected to win every test match and win it well.
“You don't want to change those expectations - they drive your own inner expectations to be even higher. It drives that necessity to want to always be better.”
New Zealand wrap-up their year with a four-Test tour of Europe, during which they will face the Barbarians, France, Scotland and Wales, as well as a midweek game against an invitational French XV. They do so without a series of high-profile names, with world class lock Brodie Retallick left at home and the likes of Israel Dagg, Jordie Barrett, Joe Moody and Owen Franks injured and Ben Smith taking a sabbatical from the game to recover from repeated concussions.
The All Blacks have also lost twice in the same calendar year – against the Lions and Australia last weekend – for the first time since 2012, and when added to the defeat by Ireland last October in Chicago, it is the first time they have lost three matches in the space of 12 months since 2010-11.
“We've got some trying circumstances at the moment with nine or 10 players out. That's on top of losing all that legendary talent after the World Cup - that's over 50 per cent of your team," Hansen added.
“It is a heck of a great challenge for us to come through, but next year when all nine are available then watch what happens because we've grown depth and experience.”
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