Warren Gatland is getting desperate, says Steve Hansen

Steve Hansen has reacted angrily to Warren Gatland’s demand that referees clamp down on New Zealand’s “dangerous” targeting of Conor Murray by phoning a radio station to call him “desperate”.

All Blacks boss Hansen called Radio Sport directly to answer British and Irish Lions head coach Gatland’s call for greater protection of scrum-half Murray.

Gatland was frustrated by what he felt were deliberate tactics from the All Blacks, claiming they were diving “blindly” at Murray’s standing leg whenever he launched a box kick in Saturday’s 30-15 defeat to New Zealand.