ALL BLACKS COACH Steve Hansen rubbished claims he met with referee Romain Poite in the lead up to his team’s win over Australia on Saturday.
The Wallabies are reportedly set to make an official complaint over the apparent meeting, which Hansen denied a day after his side’s 29-9 victory.
Hansen said he had met with assistant referee Jaco Peyper before the clash in Wellington, but not Poite.
“It’s quite sad that’s come out because it’s not true,” he said. ”Unless you [mean I said], ‘G’day Romain’ in the morning because he stayed here at this hotel.
“I did have a meeting with Jaco Peyper this week and talked to him at his request with Crono [All Blacks assistant Mike Cron] about some of the stuff that he had seen in our game.”
The All Blacks retained the Bledisloe Cup for a 14th straight year with their convincing win at Westpac Stadium.
On referees, Hansen said more needed to be done to help officials.
“I’m a firm believer that we’re here to support the referees and help them. It’s a difficult game to ref so why wouldn’t you have the meeting?” he said.
“We certainly didn’t have one with Romain Poite. We don’t meet the ref, haven’t done for about 18 to 24 months, because it’s just a waste of time.”
