Editorial: Politicians should sign up media maestro Steve Hansen

Mark Dawson, editor, Wanganui Chronicle

In an earlier incarnation, I was a sports reporter and spent a number of years interviewing sports "stars".

Sad to say, whatever the wondrous skills and abilities that set alight their chosen profession, when it came to talking about their hopes, fears and achievements, they were hardly illuminating.

They were uniformly dull, predictable and formulaic, with some - and I am thinking professional football players here - struggling to put a coherent sentence together.

So it is a delight - and a privilege - to be still in the game while the maestro of the bon mot, Steve Hansen, is on the scene.

The All Blacks coach is without peer when it comes to handling the media. His command of the situation, his droll, deadpan delivery are priceless - especially as New Zealand rugby gets fairly intense scrutiny.

Under pressure after the All Blacks drew the third test - and, thus, the series - with a British and Irish Lions touring team they were expected to beat, Hansen described it as "like kissing your sister - there's not a lot in it for anybody".

His overall assessment of the Lions series: "We've started to unlock Pandora's box ... we just didn't get to eat the chocolates." What does it mean? Who cares?

Of course, many sporting pundits have come up with memorable quotes, but they have usually been faux pas.

The commentator at an Olympic 400 metres final: "...And Juantorena opens his legs, and shows his class ..."

Soccer World Cup winner and former Northern Ireland manager Jack Charlton: "A verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's written on."

In contrast, Hansen's cool authority and willingness to front issues leaves them all for dead.

On Thursday, with the Aaron Smith sex-in-a-toilet scandal hitting the news headlines again, Hansen strode into a press conference for the ABs-Australia Bledisloe Cup test and before he had even sat down said: "We'd better deal with the elephant in the room first ..."

Brilliant media management - he knows the drill better than most reporters.

With an election campaign heating up, and politicians stumbling over their soundbites, Hansen could make a fortune selling his services on how to keep the press on the back foot ... but still onside.