Steve Hansen defends Beauden Barrett despite his missed conversions in defeat against Springboks

New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen has come in support of fly-half Beauden Barrett despite his poor goal-kicking in the recently concluded Rugby Championship clash against Springboks in Wellington.

The 27-year-old missed four conversions in the game as the All Blacks succumbed to a 34-36 defeat which was also their first in the ongoing tournament.

Even though Barrett came under criticism across all corners, Hansen came in full support of the back-to-back World Rugby Player of the Year.

“Goalkicking is a really difficult job… Tiger Woods hits a good golf ball but now and then hits a bad one. It’s part of our sport. You only have to be that much out and you don’t get the results," said Hansen.

“We could sit here and say, ‘yeah, kick a couple of goals and we win the game’, but that’s not why we lost the game.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand assistant coach Ian Foster said there was a discussion about a change in goal-kicker but eventually left the decision to the leadership group.

“We talked about the possibility of changing,” Foster told the New Zealand Herald.

“Beaudy I think kicked two of the first four. I admire him for stepping up and he hit the post with his last two, so that shows you the margins. I know that they would have discussed it… but Beaudy obviously thought he was kicking pretty well.”