Kieren Reid

Steve Hansen defends All Blacks captain

Speaking ahead of this weekend's Test against Italy in Rome, Hansen hit out at reports suggesting the 33-year-old loose forward may no longer be good enough for the test arena.

"Some of those articles are ridiculous and been written by people that have never been in our environment, we've never seen them at a rugby game. He's going well. He's in the best shape he's been all year," Hansen said of Read, who had back surgery earlier this year.

"He's had some tough moments during the course of the year, which I think have been great for him.