The pressure is starting to build on Steve Hansen. Ironically, the tell-tale sign is how often the words “pressure” and “responsibility” crop up in the All Black coach’s vocabulary as he considers the threat that the 2017 Lions pose to the double world champions.
In the build-up to the tour getting underway this weekend in raindrenched Whangarei, Hansen’s attempts to turn up the heat on the Lions betrayed the fact that he is the man trapped in the sauna.
His initial gambit was to say that the tourists should have arrived in New Zealand earlier, sending ...