Gatland should stop applying pressure on referee - Steve Hansen

New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen has critcised British and Irish Lions boss Warren Gatland for exerting pressure on referee Jaco Peyper ahead of the first Test between the two teams at Eden Park on Saturday.

Gatland had repeatedly raised concerns about of off-the-ball "blocking" technique employed by the New Zealand teams in the tour games and has promised to take up the issue with Peyper before they face back to back world champions.

Speaking in a press conference ahead of the game, Hansen slammed the 53-year-old for publicly raising the issue and applying pressure on the referee.

"The referee's got the hardest job in the world, I reckon," the All Blacks boss said.

"With the blocking, the rule says that as long as you don't change your direction of running, you are entitled to run back to help your team-mate, and that's the key, isn't it?

"Turn around and run back, and don't change your line. If your line is the same, then you are not blocking, what you are doing is just running back to help your team-mate.

"But if you run five metres to get in front of someone, that's dopey, that's dumb.

"We just want the ref to referee the rules the way they said they were going to, and be consistent about it. Will there be mistakes? Yes, there will be because they are humans, just like both teams will make mistakes themselves.

"There is no point trying to bully the referees publicly in the media. We have a moment to meet them (on Friday) and we will talk about things we need to talk about in private. And he will give his interpretation of what he wants, and then it is up to us to go and deliver that."

Asked what he would like to talk to Peyper about specifically, Hansen said: "Well, if I talk to you (the media) about it, then I am applying pressure to him in the media, and that's sort of like bullying him, and I don't want to do that.

"So I will just quietly talk to him on Friday, and certainly there are areas of the game that we will talk about."

Hansen also laughed off at Gatland's opinion that the 58-year-old will be "little bit worried" heading into the first game of the series.

"You guys that know me know I will tell you all the time that worry is a wasted emotion," he said.

"It's a wasted emotion because if the thing you are worrying about happened, you need to fix it. So there is no point worrying about it.

"And if it hasn't happened, you plan so you don't have to worry about it."