Steve Hansen attempts, then quickly abandons, Irish accent in press conference

Steve Hansen. Photo / Getty Images

Oh no. All Black coach Steve Hansen had a crack at speaking with an Irish lilt in Japan and came up well short.

Hansen was appearing with captain Kieran Read at the press conference after the All Blacks' impressive win over Australia in Yokohama.

The longtime All Blacks coach rarely puts a foot wrong, but he managed to get one stuck in his mouth this time.

Hansen added insult to injury when was asked by an Irish Examiner journalist Conor Power about the loss of Conor Murray from the Ireland team to play the All Blacks in three weeks time.

"Look I'm not sure about that I don't know," said Hansen, finding the Irish accent both irresistible and impossible at the same time.

He quickly tried to recover in his native tongue in time to question whether star halfback Murray's predicted absence was an "Irish trick".

If Hansen keeps this up, it could make for an interesting linguistic time in Dublin with Ireland's coach Joe Schmidt doing an excellent Kiwi accent.

Hansen may have got the accent all wrong, but he's not alone in questioning whether Ireland are pulling a fast one in preparation for the battle between rugby's top test sides.

Former Ireland international Ronan O'Gara, who helped guide the Crusaders to the Super Rugby title this year, believes Murray will make a shock return for the game even though he was left out of a 42-man squad because of a bulging neck disc.

O'Gara told his Irish Examiner readers: "My gut instinct is that he will play.

"He's been going pretty much full on in training and next week he will ramp that up further. If he's ready, he'll look to start."