All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says England praise was genuine

Steve Hansen has responded to Eddie Jones's claims that he is the "big bad wolf", by insisting his praise of England was genuine.

Jones had reacted to Hansen's comments about his team's achievement of equalling the All Blacks' 18-game unbeaten run by claiming on Monday that such compliments from the All Blacks had to be treated carefully.

Indeed, Jones claimed that Hansen's comments were "like red riding hood and the wolf when the wolf comes dressed up as the grandmother".

Hansen had paid tribute to Jones and his playing squad on Sunday, and has now reiterated his "genuine" praise in response to Jones's latest comments.

"Eddie [Jones] is obviously not used to getting compliments so he's got to try and brush it off, I suppose," Hansen told Radio Sport NZ.

"It's not about playing the game, in this case I and the team genuinely believe they should be complimented.

"They've done a tremendous job, they've equalled the record and could go on and break it this weekend.

"Sport is about paying due when it's due. They've done a good job and well done.

"For a long time England have been the quiet underachiever but now they've stepped up and said 'we want to be part of the big boys', and what they're doing is putting together a record that should be commended.

"It doesn't come easy doing that. A lot of hard work goes in. We shouldn't find it hard to say 'well done'.

"If you can be gracious whilst you're winning, you've got to be gracious when someone else is winning as well. That's a big part of sport."

The All Blacks' winning run, which included their 2015 World Cup triumph in England, could be overtaken by England when they face Ireland in Dublin next week, where they will also look to become the first side to achieve back-to-back Grand Slams since 1992-93.

England are wary heading to Dublin though, aware of the fact New Zealand's own record run was ended by Ireland in Chicago back in November 2016, when Joe Schmidt's side created history in beating New Zealand for the first time in 111 years.

The All Blacks are the only tier-one nation England have failed to meet in their unbeaten run, with a fixture not currently scheduled between the two until 2018 at the earliest.