Sir Steve Hansen reveals the ‘little nuances’ that’s changed rugby and identifies the Test team who will be ‘hard to beat’ in the future
Hansen stepped down from international coaching after he was in charge of the All Blacks from 2012 to 2019 when his bowed out in the semi-finals of the global showpiece in Japan.
Prior to that, the 66-year-old guided New Zealand to victory at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England and also served as an All Blacks assistant coach between 2004 and 2011, while he also coached Wales from 2002 until the 2004 Six Nations.
He is the current director of rugby of Japan Rugby League One outfit Toyota Verblitz and said while the essence of the game still remains the same, there have been some significant changes at Test level since 2019.
“It’s changed, but the basics of the game hasn’t changed,” Hansen told the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin. “You’ve got to win your ball. You’ve got to go forward and you’ve got to find space, whether you run into it, pass into it, or kick into it. Those things haven’t changed.
“But what’s changed is the little nuances around the game. You’ve got a lot of interpretations. The breakdown, for example, I think the Northern Hemisphere sides really look to attack the breakdown and slow ball down.
“And have we got the rules around the breakdown right? Not sure. And I mean, when I say right, right for the referees to be able to be consistent within games and then from game to game.
“It’s a game at the moment that’s dominated more by probably defence and physicality than expressing yourself.
In the past, I think you were able to express yourself because the breakdown wasn’t so fiercely contested, but now every breakdown is contested.
I don’t know if you watched the game between the (British & Irish) Lions and the First Nations Pasifika (on Tuesday). They really challenged each other in the breakdown there.
A lot of turnovers, and particularly when the Lions went wide. And their skillset in the Lions is really high. I think their passing and catch and pass is good.
“They find space on the fringes. But sometimes when they get caught out there because of that, they sometimes can be a bit vulnerable to turnovers. So you got to weigh all that up on how you want to play.”
Hansen also spoke about the recent mid-year internationals and revealed that he was impressed by how England fared in their victorious two-Test series with Argentina and a one-sided win against the USA.
Despite being without 14 of his first choice players, who were included in the Lions squad for their Australian tour and losing the services of experienced hooker Jamie George when he was called up to join the Lions squad as an injury replacement Down Under on the eve of the second Test against Los Pumas, Steve Borthwick’s troops still got the job done and finished their tour to the Americas with an unbeaten record
“I really like England,” said Hansen. “England are a really good squad. You look at what they’ve got in the Lions and the recent series against Argentina.
They played really well against Argentina and are building quite a bit of depth there.
“So I think they’ll be hard to beat going forward.”
