Gatland’s claim that New Zealand had set out to target and even injure scrum-half Conor Murray in the First Test drew an angry response from Hansen.
“These are predictable comments from Gatland. Two weeks ago we cheated in the scrums, last week it was blocking and now he’s saying this. It’s really, really disappointing to hear it because what he is implying is that we are intentionally going out to injure somebody and that is not the case,” said Hansen.
“We’ve never been like that and as a New Zealander I would expect him to know the New Zealand psyche. It’s not about intentionally trying to hurt anybody, it’s about playing hard and fair.
“Wasn’t it a great Test match? Both sets of players earned the respect of each other in a physical contest and at the time no one was complaining about anything that was off key.
“The fans that watched it loved it so it’s just really disappointing to hear him say that and to take away the gloss of not only the Test match but from his own team’s performance as well.
“I guess he might be a bit desperate but I’m not sure why he is saying it.”
One specific incident in the 10th minute when flanker Jerome Kaino tackled Murray’s standing leg after a box kick was of particular concern to the Lions.
Gatland intends raising the matter with the match officials ahead of Saturday’s Second Test in Wellington.
Hansen, talking to Radio Sport in New Zealand, insisted his side were within their rights to pressurise Murray physically but rejected any accusation that the All Blacks are a dirty side.
“Rugby is about playing within the laws and in this case we are trying to charge the kick down and/or tackle him. Both those things are legal. That’s what the game is built around,” said Hansen.
“Just because he’s one of their best players doesn’t mean he has the right to go around the park without being charged down or tackled.
“I wouldn’t expect it to be a topic of conversation with the officials because it wasn’t at the game.
“There’s a guy who is watching for foul play all the time and if he’d seen foul play he would have indicated it to the referee in the course of the 80 minutes.
“It wasn’t, it never was and it never will be as long as I am involved with the All Blacks. Yes we want to play hard but we will play fair and we will challenge teams to do the same to us.”
Lions centre Robbie Henshaw, who was carried off in Dublin after a tackle by Sam Cane last year in a tackle for which the All Blacks flanker was cited but subsequently cleared, says it is up to referee Jerome Garces to protect Murray on Saturday.
“If we came in to block we’d give a penalty away,” said Henshaw. “If the guy’s clearly going for the ball and he follows through and hits the player that’s not his fault. But if he’s nowhere near the ball and he’s hit our guy off the ball, it needs to be looked at.
“We’ll probably look at it in detail and the referees might look at it in detail and see. We know teams are going after our key players to put them under pressure and to try to shut them down.”
