England vs New Zealand: Steve Hansen shrugs off Eddie Jones 'clickbait' ahead of World Cup semi-final

Unfazed: New Zealand coach Steve Hansen believes there is big pressure on both sides in Yokohama
AFP via Getty Images
Will Macpherson24 October 2019

Steve Hansen laughed off Eddie Jones’s attempts at “distracting” his team with a spying row and said there is as much pressure on England as the All Blacks when they meet in Saturday’s semi-final due to their awful World Cup campaign four years ago.

Hansen bolstered his lineout options by selecting lock Scott Barrett on the blindside at the expense of one of his twin opensides, Sam Cane, and questioned whether England had enough experience to deal with the big occasion.

“Both teams have a common goal, which is to make the final,” he said. “However, we've arrived at this point with vastly different experiences from previous Rugby World Cups.

"No doubt, those experiences will resurface throughout the week and even in the game itself.”

Jones had claimed on Tuesday that a spy had filmed his training session from a high rise building, and that all the pressure was on New Zealand as they looked to win the World Cup for an unprecedented third straight time.

Hansen, droll as ever, would not nibble, and questioned whether Jones believed what he had been saying. “It's only a mind game if you buy into it and we’re not buying into it,” he said. “We're just having a good laugh about it.”

Hansen continued: ”Eddie and I both know that all is fair in love and war. There is nothing better in war than throwing out a line. You guys [the media] can't resist.

"He talked about it being somebody else, it was probably the same bloke who videoed us when we were there, but everyone has jumped on it and he's been successful in getting the clickbait.

”He didn't make anything up. He was very particularly about what he said, that someone had filmed their training. He said it could have been a supporter. He didn't say New Zealand did. You guys did. It's quite clever."

Hansen believes there is just as much pressure on England as New Zealand.

"We're under pressure all the time,” he said. “I think early in our history, we ran away from it so it was chasing us down the street. But these days, we’ve had to acknowledge it's there; now we’re expected to win every game whether it's quarter-final, semi-final or just an ordinary test match. So there is pressure; it’s a big game.

"But it would be naive to think that there's not pressure on both sides and, when you can publicly acknowledge that it’s on you, then there's an awareness - and that same pressure's running down the same street he's on.

"He's trying to take pressure off his own side by getting everyone to talk to us about pressure.

England v New Zealand
Daly 15 B Barrett
Watson 14 Reece
Tuilagi 13 Goodhue
Farrell (capt) 12 Lienert-Brown
May 11 Bridge
Ford 10 Mo’unga
Youngs 9 A Smith
M Vunipola 1 Moody
George 2 Taylor
Sinckler 3 Laulala
Itoje 4 Retallick
Lawes 5 Whitelock
Curry 6 S Barrett
Underhill 7 Savea
B Vunipola 8 Read (capt)
     
Replacements    
Cowan-Dickie 16 Coles
Marler 17 Tuungafasi
Cole 18 Ta'avao
Kruis 19 Tuipulotu
Wilson 20 Cane
Heinz 21 Perenara
Slade 22 Williams
Joseph 23 J Barrett

"Again, smart move, But I'm not buying into it, our players aren’t buying into it. We know we’re under pressure, we don't need Eddie to tell us that.

"What he needs to work out is what are England going to do about the pressure they're under. Because they'll have memories about a tournament four years ago that didn’t go that good - so they’ll be under immense pressure themselves.

"So to say they've got nothing to lose, Eddie doesn’t believe that either. They've got a whole four years work resting on one outcome so they get the opportunity to go and play another game which will have the same amount of pressure on them.”

Beauden Barrett, who is rooming with Scott, had a joke at his brother’s expense. “The other night he was sleep-talking and was calling out lineout moves,” he said.

Captain Kieran Read said that Barrett had known all week that he would be starting at blindside flanker. There is a third Barrett in the matchday 23, with Jordie the outside back on the bench.

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