Steve Hansen, usually a safe bet to begrudgingly provide the bare minimum, slips into a seat and surprises most with some unexpected candour, charisma even.
Ten French cameras. Four Kiwi stations. A visiting gang of English hack-artists shrouding the array of assortments provided by this famous old rugby haunt (Swansea being the only known club to have toppled all three Southern Hemisphere giants at some stage in their history). Specks of other nationalities too. A Paraguayan reporter. Some Irish. The Japanese invasion has not been entirely quelled.
Stunningly gregarious
Hansen, stunningly gregarious, proves the opposite to six glum All Blacks that followed. As he talked we scribbled down usable quotes.
There's a pop at all the people back home who question the form of some players. He also laid tributes at the feet of Thierry Dusautoir.
Best of all though was the moment his dour sense of humour gives French policy on nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean a timely revival. Hansen, while journeying through the epic, stunning and brutal (Nantes, 1986) rivalry between these rugby nations, particularly at World Cups, changes tack to deadpan mention of state sabotage committed by French secret agents in the port of Auckland in July 1985.
"When we think about [France and New Zealand] we don't just limit to the rugby World Cup. There has been a great relationship between the countries for a long long time. Apart from the Rainbow Warrior we've probably been on the same page most of the time."
Even Hansen checked himself as giggles rippled through the gallery: “But from a rugby point of view we got similar great athletes. I think France’s game was always built around flair in their backs and real physicality up front.
“I’m not sure it’s the same flair that they’ve got now what with the Super 14 or what do you call it, Top 14? Yeh, that’s become a dour competition with a lot of physicality. I know they are trying to recapture that flair, which is there, you can see it and when they let it loose you can definitely see it.
“Some days you wonder who has turned up but when it is a big occasion they always turn up. We have to turn up with them.”
Who of these French men, a French man asked, still has this flair?
“Your inside centre is one of the flairy guys. You wouldn’t want to give him too much room. He’d skin you as quick as look at you.”
But it’s not just Wesley Fofana, Hansen elaborated: “They all got it. They can pass and run with the ball and turn nothing into something. They are very instinctive rugby players and when they got their backs to the wall that’s when they let loose.”
But why, another French man wondered, has the flair gone away?
“I’m not sure you would have to ask their coaches. Usually the coach has something to do with it.”
It saddens French people that the current management – Philippe Saint-André, Patrice Lagisquet and Serge Blanco – were the flairiest of them all.
Hansen on Dusautoir sounds accurate: “He is one of the great players of all time. If there wasn’t a certain Richie McCaw running around during the same period Dusautoir would be seen as the guy who has played rugby in that position over a long period of time. He’s calculated, cool under pressure, smart rugby brain on him. And he’s a good man, good character. Plays the game at the right spirit. A great ambassador for French rugby.”
Then a New Zealand journalist mentions the feeling at home and how there are concerns about the form of Jerome Kaino, Kieran Read and Aaron Smith.
‘Bit of concern’
“Well, firstly, I can understand there is a bit of concern at home because they are at home and not here so they don’t know everything that we have been doing.
“They would be apprehensive about a few things, I guess, because they don’t have any control over it and when you don’t have any control over something your tendency as a human being is to worry.
“But worry is a wasted emotion. If you are worrying about something that hasn’t happened, plan for it and have a plan for it in case it does.
“I’m extremely happy with where we are at. We know what’s on the line. As everyone else does. But that’s the sort of thing that excites this team.
“Without being disrespectful, it’s not the same edge when you are playing Namibia. You know you are going to win the game so we had to create it another way through our training.
“This week we don’t have to create anything. It’s there.”
NEW ZEALAND: B Smith; N Milner-Skudder, C Smith, M Nonu, J Savea; D Carter, A Smith; W Crockett, D Coles, O Franks, B Retallick, S Whitelock, J Kaino, R McCaw (capt), K Read. Replacements: K Mealamu, J Moody, C Faumuina, V Vito, S Cane, T Kerr-Barlow, B Barrett, S B Williams.
FRANCE: S Spedding; N Nakaitaci, A Dumoulin, W Fofana, B Dulin; F Michalak, M Parra; E Ben Arous, G Guirado, R Slimani, P Pape, Y Maestri, T Dusautoir (capt), B Le Roux, Louis Picamoles. Replacements: D Szarzewski, V Debaty, N Mas, D Chouly, Y Nyanga, R Kockott, R Tales, M Bastareaud.
