If Eddie Jones set the tone with his spying accusation sideshow this week, Steve Hansen’s savvy switch of his loose-forwards could hold greater relevance for the World Cup semi-final.

Having laughed off Jones’s spying revelations Hansen did, however, set the record straight on the assertion from Jones that no one expects England to beat New Zealand on Saturday and his team, therefore, have no pressure. It came with a not-so-subtle reminder that England failed to progress beyond the pool stage of the last, home World Cup.

“I’ve talked about pressure ever since I’ve been an All Blacks coach because we’re under pressure all the time,” Hansen said. “Early in our history we ran away from it so it was chasing us down the street, but these days we’ve had to acknowledge it’s there. We’re expected to win every game.

“We know we’re under pressure. We don’t need Eddie to tell us that. He needs to work out what England is going to do with the pressure they’re under. They’ll have memories about a tournament four years ago that didn’t go that good so they’ll be under immense pressure themselves.”

It is not the verbal battle but the vastly more important tactical stakes in which Hansen may have edged ahead, though. Expectations abounded of the back-row battle between England’s Tom Curry and Sam Underhill and their All Blacks counterparts, Ardie Savea and Sam Cane. With both sets of fetchers in superb form, the breakdown shaped as a focal point to deciding this outcome. That was until Hansen brought in Scott Barrett on the blindside and left Cane among the replacements.

When Hansen first shifted Savea to blindside flanker this year to partner Cane and the captain, Kieran Read, in the loose forwards, the All Blacks coach said this was the best back row he could field – and it has been that way since. The Read-Cane-Savea trio is the most dynamic New Zealand possesses.

Yet here Hansen is making a bold move, in his most significant match for four years, by throwing the Crusaders lock Scott Barrett in at No 6 and pushing Cane, a 66-Test veteran who has captained the All Blacks on three occasions, to the bench.

“I’m not going to go into too much depth about that because otherwise I’ll give Eddie information he’ll have to work out pretty quickly himself. Obviously it’s strategic,” Hansen said. “Sam Cane is playing lovely rugby. However, we’ve made some decisions around what we want to do and how we want to play and we’ve made that change because of it.”

The theory behind selecting a third versatile, mobile, lock in the starting team will allow the All Blacks to target England’s lineout, just as they did successfully in the second half of their victory at Twickenham last November.

Barrett played the second half of last week’s crushing quarter-final win against Ireland on the side of the scrum. He brings more size and ball carrying strength to the role but also far more proficiency to the lineout than the shorter Curry and Underhill.

With Barrett joining Read, Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock, the All Blacks’ four-pronged lineout may tower over England’s two. The experienced hooker Dane Coles, another who will come off the bench alongside Sonny Bill Williams and Patrick Tuipulotu, offered more insight into Barrett’s selection. “Scotty is a pretty genuine lineout threat so it creates options for our lineout leader to look for that and get up and win some ball as well,” he said. “Both ways it’s a great thing. Scott is pretty awesome in that department so hopefully it pays off.”