Steve Hansen happy with Jerome Kaino's play at lock against Ireland

New Zealand coach Steve Hansen has defended his decision to play Jerome Kaino out of position against Ireland on Saturday.

Kaino, normally a flanker, played in the second row at Soldier Field in Chicago, where the All Blacks lost 40-29 to end a record-breaking 18-match winning streak and lose to the Irish for the first time in 111 years.

Hansen was forced into changes at lock with regular starters Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock missing through injury and potential replacement Luke Romano having travelled home after a family bereavement.

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Retallick could be back for next weekend's clash with Italy but Hansen says he would have no qualms asking Kaino to fill in again should that prove necessary.

"A lot of people are going to say that Jerome shouldn't have started at lock, but our scrum was really good," said Hansen.

"He scrummed well, the lineout wasn't his problem, it was a throwing problem, and Dane Coles has been throwing well all year, so we're not going to lose too much sleep over that, we'll get him sorted pretty quickly.

"That middle-of-the-park role was new to him and he probably over-thought it a wee bit, therefore didn't carry as strongly as he possibly could.

"But before the match you'd say that would be his strength, and the other thing, I think the young fella (Scott Barrett) came on and played really.

"But it's about making sure in the long-term he gets that opportunity to play well. You wouldn't want him to come on and have a really hard first half and lose his confidence.

"So while he came on and did really well, do we know if he'd have done that in the first half? Don't know under the circumstances. I'm still happy with the decision we made.

"A lot of people say it's his fault the lineout, but it certainly wasn't his fault. I've had a yarn to him and he shouldn't be beating himself up, he's done nothing wrong.

"We probably won't have to put JK (Kaino) back in there because Brodie's on the plane and he's available for Italy if we need him. And Scotty's now had a taste of it, and the longer he's here the better he's going to get. But if we had to go back there we probably would."