New Zealand assistant coach Steve Hansen is surprised by Wales coach Warren Gatland's emphatic attack on the isolated incident involving Dan Carter's high hit on Martin Roberts during last weekend’s Test at the Millennium Stadium.

Carter was cited for the tackle and will front a hearing on Tuesday. If he's found guilty he could face a one week ban. However, Hansen admitted to being "a wee bit" surprised that the incident had gone to a hearing, saying he'd "seen plenty of them before".

The Welsh coach launched a fairly pointed post-match attack on Carter's desperation high tackle that went unpunished by match referee Craig Joubert.

Gatland went as far as to say the non-decision in the 71st-minute, with Wales trailing 9-19, could have cost his team a chance of a famous upset over the All Blacks. He also suggested that it was a call that would not have gone that way had it happened at the other end.

In terms of Gatland's emphatic attack, backed up by his assistant Shaun Edwards, clearly there was a bit of unhappiness in the All Black camp.

"It's not for me to comment on how Warren behaves," Hansen told stuff.co.nz.

"All I know is that in my time as a professional coach you can get quite emotional and if you let emotions get on top of you, you can end up doing things that later on you might regret."

Hansen said he preferred to let the game's system deal with isolated incidents of foul play, but then delivered a fairly choice parting shot.

"It doesn't help that Warren has got a bit upset by it. At the end of the day he's his own man, isn't he. He did a lot of talking for the whole week. Why would he stop at the end of it?"

If Carter was found guilty it would be ironic as he is unlikely to be picked this week against Italy anyway but Hansen stayed well away from any comments over team selection for the Italy game.

"We haven't picked a team yet so we'll wait and see... till we find out what the decision is we can't make any decisions."

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