Hansen cool on ANZAC game

Wellington - All Black coach Steve Hansen has responded coolly to suggestions a combined Australia and New Zealand rugby team could play the British and Irish Lions in 2015 to mark the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign of World War I.

Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill raised the prospect last week, saying the match would be a fitting commemoration of the involvement of ANZAC or Australian and New Zealand troops in a campaign that claimed the lives of 130 000 soldiers on both sides.

Hansen said the concept was noble but a cluttered international rugby calendar left few opportunities for such matches.

He said "there aren't too many spare weekends and already we're asking our top players to play more rugby than they can handle."