Speaking at the All Black team announcement press conference just over 48 hours away from kick-off at Twickenham, New Zealand’s coach Steve Hansen cut through the phoney war that had been dominating the media coverage.
Apart from saying that his opposite number Heyneke Meyer was being “cunning" for praising his team so highly – Meyer described the All Blacks as the best team ever to have played the game – and said “We know the Boks will be out to rip our heads off”, he also took issue with something allegedly said by Bok lock Lood de Jager.
“I don’t think Heyneke will be happy with his young lock saying that his team doesn’t fear us. In my book if you are climbing into a ring to fight someone and you don’t fear them, then you are either fighting the wrong guy or you are in trouble,” said Hansen.
If Hansen thinks De Jager said that the Boks don’t fear the All Blacks he was reading a misquote, for that is not exactly what De Jager said in his interview with print journalists at the Bok base in Guildford. But regardless of whether De Jager said it or not, or meant it or not, you do wonder why Hansen would take issue with something so harmless.
