Steve Hansen insists the All Blacks won’t take Wednesday’s opponents Canada lightly.
Despite the New Zealand side’s overwhelming status as favourites over the North Americans, who were soundly beaten by Italy first up, the All Blacks coach insists they won’t be taking things easy.
He only needs to look at Japan’s win over Ireland as confirmation anything is possible at the tournament.
“We’ve always had a philosophy - play what’s in front of you. If it’s time to push it, we’ll push it. If it’s not on to push it, we’ll do something else,” he told reporters.
“We had a great reminder the other day of that, didn’t we?”
Hansen said his side’s heavy defeat by Australia in Perth was also a reminder danger was lurking everywhere when teams want to steal your crown.
“If you disrespect the opponent you’re playing you’ll get a punch on the nose, we did that in Perth. We can’t afford to do that again.”
NZ and Canada kick-off at 11.15pm on Wednesday.
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