When Steve Hansen lauds the detective work of Eddie Jones it can be considered high praise indeed, bearing in mind the New Zealander’s previous career as a police officer. He struggled to keep a straight face when discussing the dossiers Jones has instructed his 15 Lions to compile on the All Blacks – “Everyone’s got dossiers, it just depends what label you’ve got on them” – but New Zealand’s coach acknowledged his rival’s recent analysis of the All Blacks and pointedly resisted throwing any of the grenades he was happy to dispatch in Warren Gatland’s direction during the Lions tour.
Perhaps it is precisely because there is no showdown between England and the All Blacks this autumn, but in the absence of any need for pre-match verbals both sides have taken to killing each other with kindness. Jones was at it last week, praising how New Zealand have been “so clever” in experimenting since the Lions tour, and on Thursday Hansen returned the compliment.
He highlighted Jones’s powers of perception after the England coach remarked that New Zealand have “deliberately put themselves under pressure in games to equip themselves better for the World Cup”. Jones went further, highlighting how New Zealand are specifically focusing on slowing the ball down in anticipation of when quickening it up – a growing trend across the board – goes out of fashion.
“I can’t say too much but Eddie’s on the ball though, isn’t he? He’s got a dossier on everything we’re doing,” said Hansen, whose New Zealand side take on the Barbarians at Twickenham on Saturday. “We’re trying to do things subtly differently, so we’ve got a more complete game. It’s nice to get a compliment from Eddie. He’s doing a good job with England, it’s exciting for rugby. I don’t think any human being should be concerned about getting a compliment; the hardest thing is taking it. We’ll take it, especially from Eddie, because he’s a good coach.”
The announcement of the 2019 World Cup fixture schedule brought the countdown sharply into focus. Thursday marks precisely two years to go until the final but should both sides win their pools it is the semi-finals where England and New Zealand are due to meet. The All Blacks open their campaign against South Africa on the second day of the competition but Hansen is not concerned that their pool stage schedule has been front-loaded. “I half expected it, it’s a good way to start the tournament,” he said. “I don’t know whether we like it or not but that’s what we’re doing. The tournament wants to get off to a bang. It was either going to be us, or France v England, it looks like we drew the marble, so get on with it.
“We’re coming along nicely. We’ve got some stuff to tidy up. We’ve deliberately tried to do some stuff and deliberately tried not to do some stuff. We probably haven’t played our complete game, so you can’t grow something if you don’t look at it and try to grow it.”
The All Blacks face a Barbarians side containing 10 New Zealanders, while Hansen has named a team with a few notable omissions, including Sonny Bill Williams and Kieran Read. Instead, Beauden Barrett captains a side with a handful of rookies such as Ngani Laumape, David Havili and Seta Tamanivalu given a chance to begin a tour that, according to Hansen, did not “call for” another Test match – a reference to the Rugby Football Union’s failed attempts to belatedly arrange an England v New Zealand fixture for this weekend instead.
To say Jones – who has won 19 of his 20 matches in charge of England – has Hansen running scared would be pushing it. “This game suits us, we didn’t need another Test match,” he said. “It’s a chance to hand some opportunities to some young and inexperienced players. I know everyone’s excited about playing them next year [November 2018], as they are about playing us.”
For the Barbarians, the most notable name on the team sheet is Julian Savea, who has 46 tries in 54 Test appearances but is out of favour with the All Blacks after an indifferent performance in the third Lions Test. On Saturday he gets the perfect opportunity to give a reminder of his talents and the unique experience of squaring off against his brother, Ardie.
“It’s about him enjoying his rugby and getting in a good head space about that,” Hansen said. “He’s been a very good Test player. You don’t play that many Tests unless you’re a good player. We’ve just given him a break away from the environment and he’s getting the right messages and he knows what he needs to do.”
