Chris Rattue: Hansen and Boyd will have spoken, rest assured

Sports Writer·NZ Herald·

30 Jan, 2018 07:50 PM3 mins to read

Straight shooting All Blacks coach Steve Hansen...not one to allow a rift. Photo / Photosport

Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd dropped a bombshell, claiming that he and All Blacks coach Steve Hansen had not spoken for three years.

Sorry Chris, but I just don't believe it. Lost in translation might be the answer — something that is going on in Boyd's head has come out garbled.

Maybe Boyd has found the communication with the All Blacks coach less than satisfactory. Maybe he feels his own achievements have not been recognised sufficiently. Maybe he had aspirations that are not being fulfilled. Maybe he feels unfairly left out of an inner circle. Maybe he finds the over-arching All Black priorities a pain in the you know what.

Maybe he blurted out something and didn't get a chance to properly explain.

This week's mass media phone hook up with Boyd — who was talking about his decision to join an English club at the end of 2018 — left more questions than answers. Hansen will probably steer clear of commenting because anything he says will only pour petrol on the embers, and that's not the New Zealand rugby way.

But the Hansen we all know is not one to allow any problem like this to linger. He's a straight shooter, a straight communicator, and for all the competitive fires that must burn within a fairly humble character.

There's every chance Hansen was caught completely off guard by the extraordinary Boyd claim. You can also rest assured that someone in a high place, Steve Tew or Neil Sorensen, would have taken blunt action if there was a no-speaking rift between Hansen and Boyd.

The success of the All Blacks is everything to New Zealand rugby, nothing can get in its way, and any ego problems must be left at the door. The game here is built around everyone being on the same page.

Boyd is departing for what appears to be a much lesser job as rugby director for English nobodies Northampton Saints.

He seemed to say that he will have done all he could at the Hurricanes, after four seasons. After one title, so far? It was a wonderful effort, that 2016 season, breaking the Hurricanes' frustrating duck. But the great teams, the great coaches, don't reach for the passport there. Surely.

Back to the Hansen situation. The All Black coach needs to talk to the Super coaches, and you can rest assured that Hansen does.

On one hand, it is great to hear some sort of dissenting voice from within the halls of power, and Boyd's frustration with the 12 week stand down period for All Blacks reveals the problems the Super coaches deal with.