Kaino denies trying to injure Murray

All Blacks flanker Jerome Kaino has denied that he deliberately set out to injure British and Irish Lions scrum-half Conor Murray in last weekend’s Test in Auckland.

This was in reaction to Lions head coach Warren Gatland’s allegation that All Blacks players targeted Murray’s standing leg whenever he launched box kicks.

Television replays revealed that Kaino was guilty of such an offence in the 10th minute of that Test but the 34-year-old said although he tried to disrupt Murray’s kick, he got his timing wrong.

When asked if he had seen the incident since Saturday, Kaino answered: “I’ve seen it [replay] reviewing the game and it’s popped up on my Twitter feed about a million times so it’s a bit hard to avoid it.

“I guess people have their opinions on it and all I can say is, it wasn’t my intention to go out there and target his planted foot.

“It’s never nice when you have things done to you outside the laws. The way we do things is within the spirit of the game.”

The 79-Test veteran explained what he was trying to do when Murray launched his box kick.

“I didn’t go in to tackle him,” added Kaino.

“I rolled into his leg. What I was trying to do was… his swinging [right] foot, if you can disrupt that it’s like an ankle tap so you can disrupt the kick. My timing was off and I rolled into his planted foot and that’s what I believe happened. If that’s clear enough.”