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'Think about the game, rather than themselves' - Steve Hansen hits out at Six Nations

October 22, 2019

The All Blacks coach insists that the Springboks are his fiercest competition.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has risked irking next Rugby World Cup opponents England, declaring that South Africa are his side's biggest rivals.

With England and the All Blacks to meet on Saturday night for just the second time since 2014, Hansen was asked to evaluate the competitive relationship between the two semi-final opponents.

"I think South Africa's always going to be our biggest rival, because of the history that comes with it, just the nature of the fact we play each other so regularly," Hansen said.

"I think we've played England once in the past six years. It's hard to build a rivalry when we don't play each other."

The All Blacks coach continued to add that the current nature of World Rugby will prevent any sort of rivalry between England and the All Blacks, with the northern hemisphere sides reluctant to venture outside of their own Six Nations competition.

"If we can get the Six Nations to come on board with a global season, we'd be able to do that.

"Once they do that, they'll start to think about the game, rather than themselves."

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