All Blacks never intend to injure someone intentionally - Jerome Kaino

New Zealand international Jerome Kaino has denied allegations made by British and Irish Lions head coach Warren Gatland following the first Test between the two teams at Eden Park last Saturday.

Gatland wanted clampdown on New Zealand's 'dangerous' play after he slammed the home side of falling blindly on Conor Murray's standing leg whenever the Ireland international launched a kick in the box.

A footage shared in the social media showed Kaino clattering into Murray's standing leg but the 34-year-old insisted that the act was truly unintentional.

"It is never our intent to go out and intentionally injure someone outside the laws," he said.

"We play hard and we play fair. It is never our intention to go out and try and single anyone out.

"It was more timing. He (Murray) is very quick getting the ball to foot and there was a bit of timing there.

"But what has been said out there about malice and intention to hurt someone, that is never the case.

"It wasn't my intention to hurt anyone, and to play outside the rules. I wasn't cited (for foul play), I don't think I should have been.

"I've seen it (incident) reviewing the game and it has popped up on my Twitter feed about a million times, so it is a bit hard to avoid it.

"I guess people have their opinions on it. All I can say is it wasn't my intention to go out there and target his planted foot.

"I think what is at question here is my intent and what kind of player I (am), and all I can say is that I never go into a game thinking that I am going to target someone and intentionally hurt them. I just wanted to clear that up."

Speaking about the incident, Kaino highlighted on what exactly he was attempting to do.

"We know their strengths and we see ways where we can pressure them. Not only him (Murray). They have so many strengths in their team and we try to come up with ways where we can nullify them, but it's all within the rules and the laws.

"Obviously, there is more attention being brought to it, and their kicking game is obviously a strength of the Lions. We need to make sure we are on the right side of the law when we do things and I thought I was there.

"Individually, a lot of us weren't too happy with our performances and focussing on other comments is not going to fix individual performances. I don't think it bothers us too much what is going on outside.

"It is a different game now and a different world with social media added into it. But you learn how to block things out and you have great people around you that you get good advice from."