British and Irish Lions 2017: Steve Hansen believes rugby 'needed' Lions win for 'the good of the game'

Despite seeing his New Zealand side suffer a 24-21 defeat on Saturday, Hansen was still able to take positives out of the game

Steve Hansen managed to find positives in the All Blacks' defeat even though he was disappointed to lose (Getty)

Steve Hansen made the unusual acknowledgement that rugby “needed” the British and Irish Lions to beat his New Zealand side in order to increase the competition for the All Blacks, which he believes is “good for the game”.

The reigning world champions suffered a 24-21 defeat by the Lions on Saturday in a nail-biting contest in Wellington that was settled by a 78th-minute Owen Farrell penalty, which maintains the tourist’s hopes of securing only their second series victory in New Zealand in 129 years.

Hansen was left to rue what he described as “a mistake” by Sonny Bill Williams, with the centre sent-off in the 25th minute for a shoulder charge to the head of Anthony Watson that has landed him a four-week ban. But rather than dwell on the impact of first-half dismissal, the All Blacks coach was keen to look at whatever positives could come out of such a negative result for his side.

“Everyone will be excited next week. It will be great,” Hansen said on Sunday. “Rugby has been needing something like this for a while. It’s now got it, so everyone will be a bit nervy about that because it could go either way and how exciting is that.

“Someone said before it’s the first time I’ve had to come in and sit in here like this for a while. We haven’t done it a lot and people have got carried away, saying the All Blacks are this and the All Blacks are that. We have kept saying, actually we don’t believe that.

“We have got the Lions playing the All Blacks and we are in a great situation and competition is good for everyone because it forces everyone to have to improve. You look at the World Cup in 2015 and the four home nations would be pretty disappointed with what happened there. We have seen it improve because of that. All of that is great for the game.”

The New Zealand coach went on to claim that it is games like the second Test at the Westpac Stadium that will inspire the next generation to choose rugby over other sports, and while the match itself was far from a classic – with heavy rain lashing down throughout the first 30 minutes that made the contest particularly tricky for both sides – he believes that neither set of fans inside the stadium will have taken any notice of the conditions, such was the excitement on the pitch.

The Kiwi also has further problems to deal with ahead of the decisive third Test next Saturday. Should Hansen stick to his word and leave full-back Ben Smith out of selection due to his concussion suffered in the first Test, Hansen is set to be without at least three key players, with Williams suspended and centre Ryan Crotty still struggling with a hamstring injury.

Hansen believes the Lions' victory is good for the sport (Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

The Highlanders centre, Malakai Fekitoa, will join up with the squad on Monday to ease those concerns in the back line, though being able to draft in a World Cup winner differs immensely from Warren Gatland’s addition of the infamous “Geography Six” on this tour. Yet there was some good news in that the wing, Waisake Naholo, should recover in time from the head knock he received from Sean O'Brien's swinging arm that led to the Irishman’s post-match citing.

“He's fine,” said Hansen. “He passed the test last night. But because he was seen to be knocked out by the match doctor then we just took him off. But he was as good as gold last night and he's woken up this morning chipper, so that's great.”

Hansen would not condemn O’Brien in the same way that he would not accuse Williams after the match of deliberately trying to hurt an opponent, although the fact that Mako Vunipola did not suffer any further punishment for his late tackle and dangerous clear-out, both on Beauden Barrett, will not have pleased him.

“You've got two quality sides, you'd have to be silly to think that we're all going to go there and be nice,” Hansen said of the simmering physicality behind the second Test. “This is a physical game and one of the reasons why we love rugby, and why you guys as journalists love it, I assume, is because of the varying natures of the game.

“One of those natures is the brutality, the intensity that comes with it. You know, you are asking people to be warriors, within the law, and that's what's happening. Is some of it close? Yeah. But it always is. There's not a genuine Test match that doesn't challenge you physically, that doesn't challenge you mentally. It's great for rugby, and it's great for this team of ours. We're having to learn, as a young team, how to cope with that. So it's good.”