Rugby: 'It's partly my fault,' Steve Hansen says of All Blacks loss to Springboks

Steve Hansen. Photo / Photosport

It's been more than a decade since Steve Hansen has seen the All Blacks manage a game as poorly as they did against the Springboks last weekend, and the All Blacks coach said he's to blame for how the match played out.

The South African side claimed a famous 36-34 victory in Wellington last Saturday, ending a nine-year drought on New Zealand soil.

With the match in the balance in the dying stages of the game, the All Blacks' inability to execute at the death came under fire as an attempt to play through the hands from close range came to nothing.

Hansen stepped up to take part of the blame for the way the All Blacks closed out the game, but noted part of the problem was the leadership.

"Our game management was next door to zero," Hansen said.

"It's partly the leadership; it's partly my fault because I haven't given them enough understanding of what to do. No one's going to get hung out to dry after the loss; we've all just got to learn from it."

Hansen pinpoints the infamous 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter-final defeat to France as the last time that the All Blacks performed so poorly under pressure.

"I think back to 2007 – to the last time I can remember a game that we so poorly managed and it was because of the pressure of the scoreboard and the pressure of the event, and this time the same thing happened – we got really individualistic and tried to do it all ourselves.

"I'm meant to be the teacher and they're meant to be the students. So now I've got a classroom full of students who want to listen."

Much of the criticism of how the All Blacks handled the closing moments was focused on the side's disinterest in taking a drop goal, and assistant coach Ian Foster also acknowledged that the side lacked a demonstrative figure to make that decision.

"It's a leadership issue – if they've got a chance to sit down and have a yak before a scrum to figure out what to do, then it's the leadership group to do it – it's not just [captain] Kieran [Read]," Foster told Newstalk ZB.

"Someone's just got to put their hand up and go and do it. We just need to challenge what the thought processes were.

"We'll spend a significant amount of time going through that game and dismantling it."

The All Blacks set off for Argentina on Friday night for the beginning of what shapes up to be a tough and demanding journey during which they'll face the Pumas before travelling to South Africa for a return showdown with the Springboks.

The side left without Read, who was left behind for rest purposes, with Vaea Fifita replacing him in the squad, while Dane Coles, Liam Squire, Joe Moody and Brodie Retallick remained in New Zealand to continue their injury rehabilitation.