British and Irish Lions 2017: Steve Hansen rejects Warren Gatland 'worried' claim as time for trash talking ends

Hansen insists he's cool, calm and excited' as the first Test between the All Blacks and the British and Irish Lions nears

Steve Hansen dismissed Warren Gatland's claim that he is 'worried' about the British and Irish Lions (Getty)

Steve Hansen sent a message to Warren Gatland ahead of the first Test between the All Blacks and the British and Irish Lions this weekend by claiming he is not worried about the threat of the touring side but is “cool, calm and excited”.

Gatland said this week that he feels the tour has had a “dampener” put on it by all the off-field antics that have been an ongoing side-story between the two head coaches ahead of the Test series. The Lions boss admitted on Thursday that he has heard enough “trash talking” since returning to New Zealand, and that he has learned to ignore what comes out of the All Blacks camp ahead of Saturday’s first Test at Eden Park.

“If I'm getting up his nose that's a nice position to be in!” Gatland said. “I'm not worried about Steve, he can say whatever he likes. We've got ourselves to prepare. We know it's going to be a tough encounter. Let's let the rugby do the talking because there's been enough trash talking already.

“A couple of sideline things have taken the focus away from that. The welcome, the hospitality has been awesome.

“I'm getting a different message as a squad of players from sometimes what's being reported in the media.”

If Hansen was rattled by Gatland’s comments, he wasn’t showing it, though he did concede that he was slightly surprised by his squad selection and decision to leave out both Sam Warburton and Leigh Halfpenny from the starting line-up.

Hansen sprang a few surprises of his own, with fit-again Ryan Crotty making an immediate return to the side at the expense of Anton Lienert-Brown while Julian Savea, the wing with 47 international tries in 53 Tests, is left out of the squad completely with Reiko Ioane preferred after impressing against the Lions with the Blues two weeks ago.

However, it was his war of words with Gatland that took centre stage again on Thursday, with Hansen joking that he “appreciated” his compatriot’s comments that he must be more worried than usual due to the number of times that he’s spoken about the Lions coach in the lead up to the tour.

“You guys that know me know that I’ll tell you all the time that worry is a wasted emotion,” Hansen responded. “It’s a wasted emotion because if the thing you’re worrying about happened, you need to fix it. So there’s no point worrying about it. And if it hasn’t happened, you plan so you don’t have to worry about it. But yeah, it was good feedback from Warren, I appreciate it.

“I haven’t had any conversations about Gats [Gatland], I’ve just answered the questions you blokes have asked me. And it would be a really boring old press conference if I sat here and said nothing. So Warren Gatland’s a good coach, he’s got his own style, he’s selected a really good team and we’ve got to go out and earn the respect as they have to go out and earn ours. That’s why it’s called a Test match.”