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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Philip Dewey

All Blacks boss Steve Hansen fires back at Eddie Jones and brings up England's 2015 Rugby World Cup humiliation

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen ramped up the semi-final pressure for England by bringing up their humiliation at the 2015 Rugby World Cup which saw them crash out in the group stages.

Eddie Jones has been piling the pressure on the reigning world champions as they both head into Saturday's semi-final in Yokohama, with Jones claiming someone had been filming a training session and insisting nobody was expecting his side to beat the All Blacks in recent days.

But, after naming his side, Hansen has come out firing at his opponent in a press conference on Thursday, claiming England had just as much pressure over this game - with four years of work potentially going down the drain.

When asked about the pressure on the All Blacks, Hansen said they are under pressure all the time.

He said: "[Eddie Jones is] trying to take pressure off his own side by getting everyone to talk to us about pressure.

"Again, smart move, But I'm not buying into it, our players aren’t buying into it. We know we’re under pressure, we don't need Eddie to tell us that.

"What he needs to work out is what are England going to do about the pressure they're under. Because they'll have memories about a tournament four years ago that didn’t go that good - so they’ll be under immense pressure themselves.

"So to say they've got nothing to lose, Eddie doesn’t believe that either. They've got a whole four years work resting on one outcome so they get the opportunity to go and play another game which will have the same amount of pressure on them."

Geoff Parling looks dejected as he leaves the field after England's defeat by Wales at the 2015 Rugby World Cup (David Davies/PA Wire)

Hansen told assembled media on Thursday: "They probably haven't had as much success as they probably wanted, and they’ve had a massive disappointment at the last World Cup. But that creates adversity.

"We felt that in 2007 and that adversity gave us the ability to look at ourselves. I’m sure England will have done that, too. They have been a marvellous team during periods of that time in the last four years."

Eddie Jones looks on during the England training session (Getty Images)

Referencing the spying claims, Hansen said: "[Eddie's a] hell of a good bloke. Very good coach.

"Eddie and I both know its all fair in love and war, and there's nothing better in a time of war than to throw a wee distraction out. You guys can't resist, best clickbait in the world.

"He didn't call it us, he was very deliberate about that, he talked about it being someone else, probably the same bloke that videoed us when we were there. But everyone has jumped on it and he's been successful at getting the clickbait he wants.

"There'll be a bit more tonight. It's the reason why our press conference is now and his is at five o'clock. I'll look forward to reading it. It's been good. It's allowed us to have a good laugh and be relaxed."

Head coach Steve Hansen looks on during a New Zealand All Blacks training session (Getty Images)

All Blacks captain Kieran Read also had his say on the spying allegations.

He said: "From our point of view it doesn't even come into the equation. Myself, I don't read any news, don't know what's going on. We focus on what we can do which is our preparation."

New Zealand have made one change to the matchday 23 which beat Ireland at the weekend, with Scott Barrett replacing Sam Cane in the back row and Ardie Savea moves to openside flanker to accommodate Barrett at six.

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