Murray Kinsella reports from Pennyhill Park
NEW ZEALAND COACH Steve Hansen says Australia can call his team whatever they like, following suggestions in the Kiwi media that Michael Cheika’s men have been avoiding using the term ‘All Blacks’ ahead of the World Cup final.
Mentions of New Zealand’s historical nickname, a reference to their playing kit, have been noticeably absent in Australia’s media dealings this week at the Lensbury Hotel.
Hansen was asked for his opinion on the Wallabies’ apparent decision not to call New Zealand the All Blacks and delivered a typically sharp response.
I didn’t know that. They can call us whatever they want. Being Aussies, they probably will.”
Hansen said he is more focused on his own side ahead of Saturday’s tournament decider in Twickenham, and named entirely the same New Zealand team that beat South Africa in last weekend’s semi-final.
The Kiwis had hoped to include Wyatt Crockett on the bench, but the loosehead prop failed a late fitness test on his groin injury this morning, meaning Ben Franks remains as back-up to starter Joe Moody.
Seven of the Kiwis’ XV played in the 2011 World Cup final, lending them an experience that Hansen feels could be crucial.
“We wanted to try to get to the business end of the tournament, pretty solid on selection,” said Hansen of his team. “It doesn’t matter what you do in life, experience is massive.
“There are two types of experience – the ones you learn from and the ones you don’t – so hopefully we’ve learned enough. When you have got experience, and that experience is in good form, I think it is a big advantage.”
111-times capped Dan Carter is one of the in-form experienced heads in this group, although he did not play in the final four years ago after his World Cup was ended early by a groin injury.
Hansen is delighted that a man who has battled so hard to be fit for this year’s competition will get his chance in a World Cup final before bowing out of the Test arena.
“He had an horrific run of injuries over a couple of seasons that took away his confidence,” said Hansen.
Up until then, he was relatively injury-free. If you are around long enough, you are going to have a bit of adversity and he’s had two seasons of it prior to this year
“It’s the mark of the guy how he’s come through that. A lot of people might have said ‘enough’s enough, I will chuck it in’. But he stuck with it, and the big thing this season is he’s had the ability to play game after game after game.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, confidence is a massive thing in sport. When you start to play well, it’s like a snowball, and it gets bigger and bigger, and all of a sudden it becomes an avalanche. When he’s like that, he’s a special player.”
