Monday 26 June 2017 07:34, UK
Warren Gatland has taken a swipe at the All Blacks' style of play during their 30-15 victory over the British and Irish Lions in the first Test on Saturday.
New Zealand were convincing winners as their forwards won the physical battle up front, gaining the upper hand in the scrum and at the breakdown.
Steve Hansen revealed afterwards he found suggestions the Lions pack would suffocate his team "amusing" and said he always expected the series to hinge on what happened in the tight five.
New Zealand adopted a direct, physical approach as a means of negating Andy Farrell's vaunted rush defence, with Kieran Read and Brodie Retallick, in particular, putting the Lions on their heels with their outstanding ball-carrying in close quarters.
But Gatland, who has been criticised in his homeland for his "Warrenball" style of play, believes New Zealand's media are hypocritical for not criticising the All Blacks for not playing a more expansive brand of rugby.
"They didn't really play champagne rugby did they?" said Gatland, when asked about the Kiwi's tactics.
"If we'd have played that way and won the game I would have been interested to see the reaction.
"You've got to take your hat off to them. I did speak to the players and say, 'Don't expect them to be expansive'.
"Because as a Kiwi I understand what the mindset is, and often the mindset is to stop the strength of the opposition.
"And so to go out there and stop our line speed, to stop what was perceived to be a bit of a strength, which was our driven lineout, and to be prepared at some stage to have a crack at our scrum.
"And they did all of those things, and were very physical at the breakdown.
"So it wasn't a surprise in terms of the way they did come at us.
"We've just got to make sure that we learn from that, we're better at that and expect a bit of the same on Saturday."
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