Legendary All Blacks coach’s verdict on Super Rugby standards as New Zealand ‘miss’ South Africa but Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Tour creates opportunity
Crusaders players celebrate a try and an inset of ex-All Blacks head coach Sir Steve Hansen.
New Zealand ‘miss’ the ability to test themselves against South African opposition at club level, according to the greatest All Blacks head coach.
The Bulls, Lions, Stormers and Sharks left Super Rugby in 2020 and headed north to create the United Rugby Championship, with many ruing their void and claiming that the southern hemisphere tournament has declined in quality since their departure.
Quality of Super Rugby Pacific
However, Sir Steven Hansen believes that the competition is still of a high quality and one he continues to watch while coaching Japanese club Toyota Verblitz.
“Quite a bit, it’s an exciting time for New Zealand rugby,” he told the DSPN podcast with Martin Devlin when asked how much Super Rugby Pacific he watches.
“So I’m trying to look at and see what’s happening, and you’re always looking for what’s new and what’s not new in the game, so it’s one of the products you watch.”
When asked about the standard of Super Rugby, he replied: “The rugby is good. I mean, people get carried away and say the standard has dropped, but it doesn’t matter where you play your footy.
“Great players play to their own standards, and we are fortunate that we’ve got a lot of very, very talented players in New Zealand who want to be great, and they force other players to rise to those standards. So the standard’s fine. No problem.”
The 2015 World Cup-winning coach used the same claim to ease any concerns over the kind of nick that Ardie Savea will return to New Zealand after his latest stint at Japanese club Kobe Steelers.
Facing South African URC teams
Looking ahead to Dave Rennie’s first international season in charge of the All Blacks, Hansen agreed with Devlin’s conclusion that the Rugby’s Greatest Rivarly Tour to South Africa is the perfect preparation for the team’s Rugby World Cup in Australia next year.
Rennie is set to take an incredibly large squad to South Africa and will play midweek matches against the four URC clubs, and Hansen believes that the coaching team will learn a lot about the players during the tour.
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“I agree with that. One of the things we miss is not having them in the Super competition because you’re measuring yourself against the style of footy they play all the time,” he said.
“So, having a tour over there, we’ll get a good look at what they are doing and what they’re not doing, and be able to put our own stamp on it as well. So I agree, it’s a great place, great preparation for the World Cup.”
Tour New Zealand’s strongest foe
Overall, the head coach is excited by the prospect of touring South Africa. “Rugby all over the world is looking to try and improve its product with different competitions, and this is one opportunity to take a team on tour,” he added.
“We haven’t done it for a long, long time, and you go back into the old days, it used to be exciting. As a kid, you’d get up to listen to the radio and be on tour, but we haven’t done that for many, many years and what a great place to go.
“South Africa is steeped with history; it’s traditionally our strongest foe, they’re a wonderful side at the moment, and they produce a lot of challenges for us to be able to get excited about.”
