Hansen not bothered by English aggression

NEW ZEALAND’S forwards coach Steve Hansen yesterday vowed the All Blacks will tackle England’s “old-fashioned” aggression head on at Twickenham on Saturday.

England revealed yesterday they plan to slam down the shutters on the All Blacks expansive style, with defence coach Mike Ford hoping to drag the game into an arm-wrestle.

Ford claimed the try-laden Tri Nations, which New Zealand won without losing a game, does not properly represent full-on Test rugby — the inference being that England will teach them a lesson.

But Hansen dismissed Ford’s comments and pointedly told England they will never conquer world rugby again with such a one-dimensional approach.

“I think England would be happy to go from set piece to set piece to set piece, so they can take us on in that area and see if they can beat us,” said Hansen.

“We know from experience year after year that when we play England they will be very physical up front and we’ve got to match that and get on top of it.

“If you allow yourself to be intimidated you go through life meekly and don’t achieve the things you want to achieve.

“Rugby is no different. If people are going to stand up and try to intimidate you, you will say ‘I am not going to be’. I think that is huge.

“That is the type of game they want to play and we can’t back away from it — but that doesn’t stop us from playing our own style of rugby.

“We can mix and match our game. You don’t become the number one side in the world if you don’t have more than one bullet in the gun.”

New Zealand will announce their team to play England at 5.30am today. The early indications were that Sonny Bill Williams could start at outside centre.

Meanwhile, returning England prop Andrew Sheridan has admitted he cowered in the corner of a gym, embarrassed by the size of weights he was having to lift, as he recovered from a shoulder injury sustained in October 2009.

“The surgeons were always confident I would come back from it but there was extensive damage and it took a lot of time and rehab,” he explained.

“There was old damage from lots of years of playing and when it dislocated it tore off the rotator cuff. It was a long operation and for the first few weeks afterwards I was struggling.

“The lowest point was probably when I was lifting these one kilogram weights. I would have to wait until everybody had left the gym and I’d keep the lights off and hide in the corner!

“It picked up after a couple of months and I gradually got strength back in it. The chance to get back and play in a big Test like this one was a real carrot.”