As the Wallabies gear up to end their two-decade Bledisloe Cup drought, World Cup-winning All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has offered a frank assessment of Australia’s shortcomings.
The former All Blacks coach made headlines when he accepted Eddie Jones’ invitation to join the Wallabies setup in Paris last August, but what he saw left him concerned.
“If you went through and wrote down everything that you would expect a high-performance Test athlete to have, then I would suggest that maybe some of those things are missing,” Hansen said. “There were things that I saw that surprised me, and I’m not going to go into those things, but if you haven’t got your high performance right, then players aren’t going to arrive at the Test arena with all the things they need ticked and understood.”
Hansen explained how this gap in preparation leaves players struggling to adapt at the highest level. “That makes it hard because you’ve got to learn it at the very highest level. And for me, that’s what rugby’s about at the lower levels. You’re preparing people to be better at a higher level.”
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