Hansen hits out at 'boring' lineout drives

All Blacks coach Steven Hansen says defending teams should be allowed to collapse lineout drives to make that part of a game more of a fair contest.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has called for a change in rugby's laws to allow defending sides to collapse "bloody boring" lineout drives.

New Zealand conceded two tries from the tactic in their 39-18 Rugby Championship win over Argentina in Christchurch, both scored by opposition skipper Agustin Creevy.

Hansen said he wasn't having a go at how South African referee Craig Joubert controlled the game.

"I'm having a go at the laws," he said.

"He's reffing it how the law says you can. Bloody boring, though."

Hansen said he had been saying for years that he thought lineout drives were illegal obstruction and they should be turned into a fair contest.

"The easiest way would be to say you can collapse it," he said.

"There's never been anyone injured in a collapsed maul yet and there's thousands of them every week get penalised, so make that legal and it becomes a half-pie, a fair contest."

But Hansen also acknowledged that the rules were what they were and the All Blacks had to improve the way they countered lineout drives, especially with South Africa as their next opponents.

"We know they will scrum for some penalties, they will kick for lineouts and they will drive," he said.

"So we will need to get better at it before we play them, otherwise there will be a lot of tries."

One of New Zealand's five five-pointers against Argentina, to skipper Richie McCaw, also came from a lineout drive.

McCaw said he noticed even in Super Rugby that teams were putting more work into making the manoeuvre a weapon and he expected "a fair bit of it" at the World Cup.

But he also indicated that a lack of discipline put the All Blacks in a vulnerable situation against the Pumas.

"The two tries they got, yes, we need to do some work at five-metre lineouts," he said.

"But if you look at how they ended up there, it was probably our discipline, back-to-back penalties, that put us in that position."


Share

2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: AAP


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world