Hansen takes aim at TV producers
New Zealand coach Steve Hansen blasted the use of television replays after his world champions beat England 24-21, claiming TV producers were threatening to have a damagingly decisive say at Test level.
The All Blacks were rocked when they fell behind in just the fourth minute at Twickenham on Saturday to England wing Jonny May's first international try.
But with flyhalf Aaron Cruden crossing they were just 14-11 behind at half-time.
They then stepped up the pace in the second half with skipper Richie McCaw scoring a try before replacement forward Charlie Faumuina went over nine minutes from time.
England's late penalty try could not disguise a fifth straight defeat by the All Blacks.
There was a hold up after Faumuina's try, when Beauden Barrett was about to take the conversion, as referee Nigel Owens studied a series of replays on the giant screen.
Barrett then duly missed the place-kick.
For Hansen it was all too reminiscent of the incident last month that led to South Africa's winning score in a 27-25 victory – a defeat that ended New Zealand's 22-match unbeaten run – when English referee Wayne Barnes awarded the decisive penalty after studying the giant screen at Johannesburg's Ellis Park.
What the screens show – or don't show – is not under the control of the match officials and Hansen said: "We don't need a TV producer to replay something 100 times.
"That's not in the character, the spirit of our game.
"Referees will make mistakes, just like players will make mistakes and some of those mistakes will cost you the game but you've got to live with that because some day you'll get the rub of the green and the mistake he made will let you win it.
"But TV producers, they are starting to annoy me somewhat."
McCaw added: "It probably cost us a Test match a few weeks ago.
"Once it was seen, the right decision was made but it could easily have not been."
On the game itself, Hansen hailed his team's composure.
"England got away to a flying start," said the coach. "We showed a bit of composure in coming back into it. The big thing that changed was that we got a wee bit urgent.
"We talked at half-time that we needed to get urgent before we needed to get desperate in the last five minutes."
Despite being a man down for 10 minutes when hooker Dane Coles was sin-binned in the 57th minute, the vastly more experienced All Blacks out-scored 2015 World Cup hosts England 3-0 in that period.
"It's got nothing to do with caps, it's got to do with the people wearing the respective jerseys," added the coach.
Disappointed England captain Chris Robshaw added: "We played extremely well in the first half but unfortunately in the second half we could not quite get field position.
"If they have that much of the ball they are capable of hurting you and they did that," the flanker added.
Source: AFP
