Jerome Kaino: ‘I didn’t go out to injure Conor Murray’

The player at the centre of the controversy for diving into Murray's standing left leg after he had completed a box kick, namely Jerome Kaino, fronted up to the media glare and fended off the barrage of questions about the 10th minute incident good-humouredly.

Kaino sought to bat away the episode initially “We haven’t really focussed too much on what the coaches say between each other. Our focus for our team is how we can get better for next weekend and get the win.

“Whatever is said out there in the media world doesn’t really affect us too much, and it shouldn’t.”

However, he did insist: “It is never our intent to go out and intentionally injure someone outside the laws. We play hard and we play fair. That incident was a one-off. It is never our intention to go out and try and single anyone out.”

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Explaining how his late hit on Murray’s standing leg happened, Kaino said: “It was more timing. He 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. I don’t think I should have been.”

Asked if he had reviewed the incident himself, Kaino revealed that, thanks to social media, he didn’t have much choice. “I’ve seen it 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. It is never nice when you have things done to you outside the laws, and the way we do things, it’s within the spirit of the game.

“I didn’t go in to tackle him. I rolled into his leg. What I was trying to do, his swinging foot, if you can disrupt that, it’s like an ankle-tap, so you disrupt the kick. My timing was off, and I rolled into his planted foot, and that’s what I believed happened.

“We weren’t told to do anything,” he added, and perhaps most pertinently of all, added: “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.”

In any event, this high profile episode has, in a roundabout way and as Gatland intended, probably ensured it won’t be repeated in Saturday’s second test in the Westpac Stadium.

Asked if he would do it again this weekend, Kaino laughed and quipped: “Well, obviously not, because it would probably go from my Twitter feed to my Instagram feed!”