Rugby World Cup 2015: Hansen to seek clarification on penalty rulings

All Black coach Steve Hansen fields questions at a press conference after the All Blacks' victory over South Africa. Photo / Getty Images

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen will seek clarification with referees' boss Joel Jutge on some of the rulings made against his side in the tense semifinal victory over South Africa.

Hansen's men were on the receiving end of 13 penalties, compared with the Springboks' six, a discrepancy which the coach described as worrying in the aftermath of the 20-18 victory at Twickenham.

The day after the match, Hansen, who had watched a recording of the test, admitted his men were at fault for many of the decisions by referee Jerome Garces, but there were some he couldn't understand - such as the maul penalty against No8 Kieran Read - and on other occasions the Frenchman failed to penalise the Boks for doing the same thing.

"A lot of the penalties were justified," Hansen said. "There were a couple there I don't agree with, so I'll have to talk to Joel about the interpretation - I'm talking mainly about Reado's entry to the maul. I felt he was in the maul and had all the rights to do what he was doing.

"The only concern I've got is whilst we're getting penalised for things, the same things were [being done by] the opposition and they weren't, so that will be something else I'll be talking about. You just want consistency."

The Boks showed the value of playing at the right end of the field and having a goalkicker in the form of Handre Pollard, and later Pat Lambie.

But as the minutes ticked down and the All Blacks defended a two-point lead, Hansen, felt the territory game his side were playing would get them home.

Told that he looked relatively composed, Hansen said: "On the outside I was. You don't really understand [what it's like] unless you're sitting in the seat yourself. There's a lot of tension going on inside and you're just hoping that things will go the way you want them to go. There's nothing you can do - you just have to sit there and if you've got to make any decisions, like subs, you have to be clear.

"You've just got to trust and keep the belief and things will work out how they do, I guess.

"We've been in tight spots in the last four years and the years before that. When you've got the experience that we've got - a lot of people have made noises about guys being too old, but they're in good form and if they've been around a long time they bring a lot of experience. Most of our experiences have been positive ones and therefore you get a lot of inner self-belief from that.

"The only thing I really wanted us to do was stay up inside their 10m line because both of their kickers can kick from well over halfway. Whilst we stayed in that area I was reasonably confident our defence wouldn't allow them to get away and score a try."

Veteran midfielder Conrad Smith, who, like several of his teammates will play his last match for the All Blacks in next Sunday's final at Twickenham, said there was no hint of panic as his side went to the break 12-7 down and with Jerome Kaino in the sinbin.

"We called on that experience yesterday when we were down at halftime and were being put under a bit of pressure and down to 14 men," he said. "There wasn't too much panic - there was still a lot of belief. We knew we needed to play better but we knew we could and we didn't need to change too many things."

- By Patrick McKendry in London