New Zealand’s toughest opponent in next three weeks is New Zealand
It’s probably not a great surprise that All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has revealed he’s not a great lover of social media.
The All Blacks arrived this week in the coastal spa town of Beppu to be greeted by thousands of genuinely awe-struck locals and a media storm generated by a group of angry trolls.
The former Hansen loved. It was yet more evidence that the All Blacks, especially after they took the time to bow to the crowd in Yokohama after beating the Springboks, are a massive favourite with the Japanese.
The latter Hansen didn’t love as it confirmed that in the parallel social media universe, the All Blacks are not anyone’s favourite.
They are in fact the evil empire and were supposedly able to hoodwink the officials and citing commissioner when they beat the Boks by somehow avoiding detection for a series of the off the ball incidents.
In the wake of their victory, slowed down video clips were circulated from South Africa, first of all supposedly showing All Blacks captain Kieran Read illegally taking out flanker Steph du Toit with a high tackle.
Then clips appeared of Joe Moody supposedly banging his elbow into the back of Malcolm Marx’s head and within minutes the social media world was awash with scandal.
Discipline has been a touchy subject for the All Blacks since they beat Ireland in Dublin three years ago.
After losing in Chicago they turned up at Aviva Stadium two weeks later with a mindset to make amends and not care overly much if there was some collateral damage along the way.
It was an epically brutal contest which saw the All Blacks shown two yellow cards – one of which should have been red – and Hansen become agitated by a line of questioning put to him live on Irish TV after the game.
He felt he was being goaded into admitting that the All Blacks were a dirty team and said exactly that to his interviewer.
His irritation was illustrative of how much he doesn’t like his side being accused of reckless disregard for either the letter or the spirit of the laws.
What hasn’t helped is that throughout 2017 and 2018 and indeed the pre-World Cup games, the All Blacks have lacked discipline.
It has been a weakness in their game and in 2017 they were the most carded Tier One team in the world. This week, Hansen’s irritation was compounded by the irony that while the social media world is making accusations that the All Blacks were indulging in all sorts of filth against South Africa, the statistics confirmed that they delivered one of their most controlled and disciplined performances of the last four years.
They conceded just four penalties and that wasn’t because they were handed a lucky break by referee Jerome Garces.
They kept the penalty count low because discipline has been a huge focus in their training since they arrived in Japan. They have worked endlessly at staying onside, at staying on their feet at the breakdown and lowering their tackle points to not give officials any possible reason to be thinking about taking a second look at their tackling.
Hansen was all a-glow about the All Blacks’ discipline immediately post-match in Yokohama, only to have his mood soured by the time he arrived in Beppu and he wasted little time to state that he wasn’t interested in discussing the internet’s take on his team.
If the officials and citing commissioner hadn’t seen anything then move on was his view. The All Blacks are not judged by social media he said but by an officious and intrusive system that has had little trouble in the past finding micro-moments of concern and reason to haul players in front of judicial panels.
“I am not going to sit here and talk about this all night. You can tell by the way I am answering this that I am not into it,” he said.
“Social media is part of our society, but I can’t worry about that. I can’t control what people put on there and I am a great believer about worrying what you can control.”
When one intrepid reporter wouldn’t let the whole business lie, despite Hansen’s warning that his patience for the matter was already exhausted, he induced the All Blacks coach to resort to his acerbic, comedic best form as he tried to explain how the process around foul play works.
“Look mate what happens is this...[knocks on desk]...
‘Hi citing commissioner how are you today?’
“‘Good thanks. Have you got anything you want to complain about today Steven?’
“‘No I am good thanks.’
“And he goes away.
[Knocks on desk again].
‘Rassie [South African coach Erasmus] have you got anything you want to say?’
“‘No I am good thanks.’
“And that is the same every game. That’s how it rolls. Once you say no that is it. You don’t get a second chance.”
Point made, Hansen then pleaded to a French journalist to ask him something more sensible and in that three minute exchange, the All Blacks coach had shown his considerable ability to control the message.
And that message is that the All Blacks are in Beppu to train the house down and not get embroiled in a trial about their integrity in the court of social media.
They trained for two hours at 8.30am after they arrived and it’s clear that they intend to smash themselves behind closed doors to get themselves ready now for the quarter-finals.
They know that neither Canada nor Namibia are good enough to cause them any problems and probably Italy aren’t either so they intend to train at an intensity and ferocity that puts them under the sort of pressure they can expect in the knock out rounds.
Essentially the All Blacks toughest opponent in the next three weeks will be the All Blacks and if they go on to win this World Cup they will look back on their 10 days in Beppu and say it was critical – the time in which they got themselves ready for the onslaught that awaits in mid-October.
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