All Blacks Boss Steve Hansen Has A Pop At World Rugby & The Six Nations

Nations Championship?

All Blacks boss Steve Hansen has taken a pop at World Rugby and Six Nations officials following New Zealand’s 92-7 demolition of Tonga over the weekend.

A proposal was put forward this year to create a global ‘Nations Championship’ that he feels would have given the likes of Tonga the framework to improve and put in better structures to nurture their talent.

In an ideal world, Tonga would have more opportunities to take on Tier one opposition Hansen says, but he feels World Rugby’s unwillingness to stand up to Six Nations bosses is damaging the game. Hansen says the Six Nations “rule” Test rugby.

“The problem that we’ve got is a calendar that doesn’t allow you to do that,” Hansen said

“We have these wonderful ideas about growing the game but we don’t have an organisation at the top that wants to be strong enough to say ‘righto, this is what we’re doing, we’re going to have a global season.

“The Six Nations rule world Test rugby programs. They don’t want to give that up and until they’re prepared to give that up, we’re not going to see any progress in that area.”

But Hansens feels Tonga will improve by the time the World Cup kicks off in Japan.

“It’s really difficult [for me] when your players play for five different franchises in New Zealand,” Hansen added

“So I can only imagine how difficult it would be when your players are playing all over the world and you’re bringing them back and you don’t have much time to prepare them.

“Whatever happened yesterday, [Tonga] will get way better by the time they get to the tournament.”

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