Rugby World Cup
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen frustrated by stop-start rugby in Namibia fixture
Tom Hamilton
September 25, 2015
New Zealand 58-14 Namibia (Australia only)
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QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK, London -- All Blacks coach Steve Hansen was less than impressed with the stop-start nature of the second-half of Thursday's night's game against Namibia at the Olympic Stadium.

The second 40 lacked the pace of the first half and Hansen was frustrated with the intermittent nature of the game when talking to press post-match.

"It was frustrating. In the second-half there was about 14 minutes of the game being played so it's very hard to play rugby when it's stop-start like that."

Hansen was then asked whether his team would have to develop a mental resilience when dealing with a game where tempo and phase play was at a premium due to the constant stoppages in play.

"We've got to deal with it better than we did tonight anyway. It is difficult when every time you have a scrum... I think at one stage there we spent about four minutes [on a scrum] and that's not what the game wants. I don't know how to fix it. That's what happens sometimes when you get opposition who are struggling to stay up and we're struggling to stay up and the game doesn't need it."

The TMO has been a constant feature in the World Cup to date and was frequently used to determine whether tries would be allowed or not. Hansen said it is important to get decisions right but added: "When you get a game like tonight the goodwill probably goes out the door - and you get frustrated. I'm talking about the fans rather than us as players and coaches."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Tom Hamilton is the Associate Editor of ESPNscrum.

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