Steve Hansen starts the mind games

Hammer the hammer. It’s an expression normally reserved for those operating between the white lines but one that seems perfectly applicable in a wider context now that Steve Hansen has identified Joe Schmidt’s meticulous nature as a possible Achilles heel before New Zealand and Ireland meet on Saturday in their World Cup quarter-final.

Schmidt’s attention to detail and fastidiousness is legion after almost a decade pulling the strings at Leinster and Ireland. And that work ethic and attention to all sorts of minutiae is reflected in an Irish side that has earned such success under his keen eye by doing the simple things well through endless repetition on the training ground.