Rugby: All Blacks brush aside Lions late hit controversy

Mako Vunipola lines up the off the ball hit on Anton Lienert-Brown. Photo / Sky Television

It is the rugby version of let sleeping dogs lie. The All Blacks continue to adhere to their policy that any possible foul play or unsavoury incidents against them that aren't picked up by the officials, should be ignored.

There is no appetite within the All Blacks to trawl through video footage to find reasons to question the integrity of their opponents after a test.

Things happen. Players get their timing or technique wrong or make poor decisions that they later regret. But if it goes unpunished or unseen until way after the event, then it's best to keep it that way.

Shrug and move on is the All Blacks policy which is why coach Steve Hansen wasn't interested in engaging about a new clip from the first test which shows Mako Vunipola make a late charge on Anton Lienert-Brown.

He would only say that Vunipola no doubt feels some regret for clattering the centre at a ruck a few seconds after the ball was cleared, but it wasn't material to the game or the outcome and therefore best to forget it.

The fact Lienert-Brown himself said he had no memory, confirmed that it was simply a clumsy piece of bad timing from the Lions prop.

"What happens on the park is adjudicated by a guy who is connected to the ref and they are doing a pretty good job I think of making the game a lot cleaner than it was in yesteryear," said Hansen.

"We have got citing commissioners now and if they don't see it, just move on. It is a hard game we play and there are going to be times when people unintentionally step over the line and do something that they might regret later and that has been happening through the ages.

"You only have to look at what happened in the game on Tuesday night.

[Lions lock Iain] Henderson and someone else picked up a player and it was very reminiscent of what happened to Brian O'Driscoll [in 2005]. I am pleased he just got a yellow card and nothing else because he didn't do that intentionally but in the heat of the moment his skills at the breakdown to clean him out haven't been right so he's paid the price and got 10 minutes in the bin. But move on from it."

Most tests will be littered with incidents that may have escaped censure and are technically in breach of law but caused no material harm or disruption.

It's an inevitable consequence of the speed and intensity of the players and without some kind of acceptance or leniency, the game would be almost unmanageable if every grey area exchange had to scrutinised and reviewed.

Fundamental to this ethos adopted by the All Blacks is their conviction that neither they nor any team that they play, take to the field with a premeditated desire to inflict physical damage.

There will be moments of ill discipline and poor execution - hopefully which will be penalised by the officials - but there is never any team that the All Blacks play who have come to rip off heads deliberately.

"I don't know any rugby player that we have played against or that I have coached that has intentionally gone out to hurt anyone," said Hansen.

Another reason Hansen and the All Blacks are wary of relying on footage as the sole basis of evidence is that it can be misleading.

In the wake of the 2015 World Cup semifinal, a piece of footage emerged that appeared to show Richie McCaw collide with South Africa's Francois Louw. The angle, though, was entirely deceptive and there was no major connection.

There was also an incident last year when the TV cameras appeared to show an incident where Owen Franks may have had his fingers in the eyes of Australia's Kane Douglas. But the Wallabies lock said it didn't happen and again, the pictures told a story that didn't necessarily happen.