All Blacks veteran and Steve Hansen put ‘hard feelings’ to bed

All Blacks hooker Dane Coles has revealed that he is back on good terms with the three-time Rugby World Cup winners’ former coach, Steve Hansen, after they had a chat earlier this week.

Hansen has joined New Zealand at their Rugby World Cup base in Lyon for a few days – ahead of their second match at the global showpiece against Namibia -and Coles said the duo had buried the hatchet.

Shocked that Hansen was helping Australia

This, after Coles said last month that he was gobsmacked when told that Hansen was helping the Wallabies ahead of the World Cup.

Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones downplayed Hansen’s role in the Australian set-up by likening it to a friend stopping by for a beer and a chat.

“He gave me a bit of stick for causing a bit of a scene, but no, it’s good,” Coles told the All Blacks’ official website. “It’s funny what can change in the past couple of weeks. He got up and had a bit of a yarn and all that. The little bit of hard feelings has been put to bed.

“We had a bit of a hug. I won’t say what he said to me. It was a bit of good humour. He’s got a lot of respect in this environment [and] he was helping out a mate, once we got a bit of context to it.

“He’s got a lot of good, deep connections with a lot of players that he’s coached before. You’ve seen that when he sees players for the first time, the smiles and the banter. It’s lifted the spirits.”

The veteran hooker is looking for an improved effort from the All Blacks against Namibia on Friday after they came off second best to France in their tournament opener a week ago.

The All Blacks’ scrum was a big concern in that encounter, and Coles knows that they have to show improvement in that area against Namibia.

“As a forward, the set piece stuff is always massive for us. We got a bit of a touch-up against France, so I think the scrum is very important,” he said.

“Success is having a solid scrum. If we can improve that against Namibia, that would be awesome.”

Favours ball in play for more minutes

Coles also favoured having the ball in play for more minutes in games as it favoured New Zealand’s strengths.

“We’ve just got to be smarter and try to keep the ball and make it count, and give the work rate off the ball to make sure we can play footy and have a crack.”

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