All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen has been speaking to Wales Online. Hansen, who was Graham Henry's assistant when New Zealand won the 2011 World Cup, believes the game is heading down a road which could turn off fans as it is currently geared towards preventing scores rather than creating them.
The 55-year-old was in Europe to cast his eye over France vs Wales and Ireland vs England and his opinion of the style of rugby on show was not exactly positive.
I've actually got big concerns about the game at the moment, because there are not enough tries being scored, which is turning the fans away.
We are about to go into a showpiece for the sport at the World Cup. There are going to be millions and millions of people watching it and then all you re going to see is people kick goals.
Asked for his opinion on the crucial clash between Wales and Ireland on March 14th, Hansen did not have much hope for an exciting, attacking game.
The comment which exemplified this was him saying that "Ireland aren't going to play much rugby".
Well, Wales have got the home advantage, but it’s a really tough game for both sides. Ireland aren’t going to play much rugby. They are going to try and play a game that suits them.
They will kick into the corners, they will box kick, they’ll kick from Jonny Sexton and they’ll wait for you to make mistakes and kick penalties, as happened against England.
They waited for England’s indiscipline, so Wales will have to make sure they keep their discipline and take the high balls in the air.
If they can manage to do that, then there you go.
Not a lot of enthusiasm coming through from Steve in those quotes. The biggest compliment that he could give the two sides was saying that they are both excellent defensively.
See also: The Southern Hemisphere Rugby Media Are Really Taking Notice Of Ireland Now
Picture credit: David Maher / SPORTSFILE
