All Black lock Chris Jack will not make the same mistake as Lions motor-mouth Austin Healey, preferring to ignore taunts from his opposite, Justin Harrison, before Saturday's Tri-Nations test against Australia in Christchurch.
Jack would not respond to comments in the Australian media from Harrison, who questioned the giant New Zealander's credentials.
"That's his comments, we'll just leave them there," Jack said. "I'm not too worried."
Harrison, 28, probably in an attempt to put Jack off his game, said the 23-year-old did not deserve all the attention he was getting and that his team-mate Norm Maxwell was a better lock.
"He [Jack] seems to be a bit of the talk at the moment for New Zealand rugby and I guess in rugby in general," Harrison said.
"I'm not looking up to Chris Jack and I'm certainly not in awe of him. I think in my own right I present a lot of skills and qualities that he probably doesn't have."
How the two giant ball-winners perform at lineout time will be crucial in determining the outcome at Jade Stadium, and Jack preferred to save his response to Harrison for the field.
He did not make the same mistake as Healey, who described Harrison as a "plank" in a controversial newspaper column on the eve of last year's third Lions-Wallabies test.
The column fired up the Australians and Harrison, who had a dominating game in helping them to win the test and series.
When asked to assess Harrison as a player, Jack's reply was not exactly flowery: "He's an international player and he plays really well whenever he does play. He's pretty good."
Jack believed the Wallabies possessed an "awesome" lineout.
"We just have to have a go at it really."
He clearly outplayed Harrison in a standout performance for the Crusaders in the Super 12 final against the Brumbies six weeks ago.
After that game, Jack said he was surprised the Brumbies had tried to take them on through the forwards, the Crusaders' real strength.
When asked how to end their poor record of the last four seasons against the Wallabies, he suggested that the advantage up front remained with the All Blacks.
"We've got to try to take them on more physically, have a go up front a bit more," he said. "I don't think they're a driving team, but they've got pretty good forwards."
Jack scored a try on his test debut at Jade Stadium, against Argentina last year. He is one of just five starting players who began the last Bledisloe Cup test, the gut-wrenching 29-26 loss in Sydney last year. The others are Maxwell, prop Greg Somerville, first five-eighth Andrew Mehrtens and winger Doug Howlett.
- NZPA
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Jack ignores Wallaby's taunts
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