British and Irish Lions 2017: Steve Hansen defends Sonny Bill Williams for shoulder charge that changed the Test

Hansen insisted the centre had not intentionally tried to hurt his opponent

Steve Hansen defended Sonny Bill Williams for his shoulder charge on the British and Irish Lions wing, Anthony Watson, during New Zealand’s 24-21 defeat on Saturday, and while he admitted that there was enough in the incident to warrant a red card, he insisted the centre had not intentionally tried to hurt his opponent.

The week leading up to the second Test in Wellington saw Lions coach Warren Gatland accuse New Zealand players of intentionally trying to injure his scrum-half, Conor Murray, during the first Test in Auckland.

Both Jerome Kaino and Brodie Retallick were seen on television footage making contact with Murray after he kicked the ball, with the former appearing to target his standing leg rather than charge the ball down.

These questions reared their head once again following the 25th-minute incident between Williams and Watson that proved to be a decisive moment in the Westpac Stadium encounter, with referee Jerome Garces deciding that Williams deserved a red card for his infringement.

"The red card was a red card, if the ref says it's a red card, you don't have any say in it,” Hansen said afterwards. “It was one of those ones that could have been a yellow or a red, but he chose it to be a red so you just have to live with it.

"There's no point whining about it, Sonny didn't use his arms so he put himself at risk, and unfortunately he collected young Anthony's head and put him at risk. You don't want that and the referee deemed it a red card, so off you go boy."


 Hansen defended his player 
 (Getty)

Yet when Hansen was asked whether the challenge from Williams contained intent to hurt his opponent, with Garces using the words “intent” and “deliberate” in his review of the high shoulder charge, Hansen defended his player and reiterated that he does not think anyone goes out to intentionally hurt an opponent.

He also appeared to deflect the attention onto Lions prop Mako Vunipola, who was sent to the sin-bin for a dangerous clear-out on Beauden Barrett in the 56th minute, three minutes after he had been penalised for a late tackle on the fly-half, and while he did not make direct reference to Garces’ decisions, Hansen seemed somewhat perplexed with the referee’s consistency.


 Williams was sent off for his shoulder charge on Watson 
 (Getty)

“I don’t think so, no,” Hansen answered when asked about Williams’ intention. “I’m not Sonny Bill so I don’t know what his intention was, I don’t know that Jerome [Garces] does either.

“Did Vunipola intend to take Beauden Barrett’s head off? I don’t think so but that’s what happens in the heat of the game. We talked about this last week at the press conference, things happen in the heat of the moment and players end up getting onto the wrong side of the law.

“Are they intentional? I still don’t think anyone does that but unfortunately it happens and they have a process to deal with it, [I’m talking about] both incidents. All you want from the ref is consistency and there’s a process for that if there’s not.

“I don’t want to make any comment about Jerome Garces, it’s just media stuff and we’re not going into that. What we should be getting excited about is it’s 1-1 and the Lions tonight played well and won the game and we’re going to Auckland to try and win it and they’re going to Auckland to try and win it. “