Israel Dagg and Cory Jane celebrated victory in the 2011 Rugby World Cup final © Getty Images

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Cory Jane and Israel Dagg claim they have no recollection of the night they went out in Auckland ahead of New Zealand's 2011 Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Argentina, insisting they each had a massage and took two sleeping pills "just to go back to the room to go to sleep".

"But we figured we needed to get something to eat and went to dinner and then they kicked in,'' Jane said on Monday, contradicting suggestions from New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew last week that he and Dagg had misused sleeping pills trying to see who could stay up the latest.

''There was no mixing with energy drinks, no thought of going to the pub and drinking and partying. We had a big training the next day so we happened to go out quickly to get something to eat and they kicked in and we were on autopilot.''

Jane said he woke up in the morning thinking he had returned to his room and gone to sleep. "I woke up the next day, went to training, had a good training, and then got told afterwards we'd gone out. I didn't even know we'd gone out. All I remember is getting something for dinner then waking up the next morning.

''So when people say 'why were we stupid enough to go out there and get on the juice a few days before an important final,' we can say we didn't plan to go out. We just made the mistake of taking the sleeping pills and instead of taking them when we were jumping in bed we quickly tried to get something to eat and that was that.''

Dagg endorsed that account of the evening. ''We didn't have any intention to go to town and have a party and do what we did. But one thing led to another and then I remember waking up and we didn't even know we went to town.''

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, meanwhile, said that players had to be made aware of the dangers of mixing prescription sleeping pills with energy drinks. "People's awareness of this problem has grown and we can't hide from it," Hansen said on LiveSport. "We've got to be up front and deal with it, and the best way to deal with it is to educate our players. Yeah, you do need to have the ability to relax and get off what I call the 'Ferris wheel of continuous playing', but there's a certain way of doing that that's not going to be harmful.

"In this case the sleeping pills and fizzy drink and alcohol, if you continue doing it, it's going to be harmful. So you sit down and try to educate them that this is not the way to do it. You've got to find other ways to help you get off that Ferris wheel."