His spray at halftime against Namibia will keep the All Blacks sharp in their mental preparation for the rest of the Rugby World Cup, says Steve Hansen, who heaped praise on Richie McCaw as the one player who was consistent with that aspect of the game.
With Dane Coles revealing that the team were on the receiving end of what amounted to a spray at halftime, a sheepish Hansen admitted he had a stern word with the players.
“I don’t want to talk about it, I’d have been reasonably happy if Colesy had kept quiet about it, that would have been good,” a smiling Hansen said.
“Sometimes you have to do things as a coach and you recognise the right time and the wrong time. We needed to talk about our attitude and our intent. We talked about it and the pleasing thing was the players went out and sorted it out, which was great.”
Hansen said the dressing room dressing down was rare because the All Blacks have been so good at preparing themselves, but sometimes there was mental complacency when facing minnows.
“Have I had to do it very often? No, because these guys are pretty good at getting themselves ready,” he said.
“One thing you’ve got to understand and I am happy to talk about is one of the hardest things to do in sport, I believe, is to get yourself in that mental state that you can perform at the highest level all the time. It’s like climbing Mount Everest every time you do it.”
Hansen then used the discussion to raise the player who was best at this aspect of the game, Richie McCaw.
“I’ve only been associated with one player who I thought could do it, week in, week out, regardless of who we were playing and that’s Richie McCaw,” he said.
“Now he never really had a bad game, he never had an off day, but in the end it’s probably one of the reasons that he retired, because it takes a lot of effort and emotional effort, mental effort.
“Sometimes it’s excusable when subconsciously your mind says to yourself, 'I know we can beat these guys and I am trying to prepare the best I can', but sometimes we just drop off five per cent.”
Hansen said he will be less concerned about complacency as the men in black get down to the business end of the tournament.
“I think against really good opposition, I don’t think you have that same problem because your mind doesn’t allow to go there.”
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