With the All Blacks‘ season all wrapped up, the final analysis and verdicts are being delivered and Rugby World Cup-winning head coach Sir Steve Hansen is the latest to offer his two cents.
Recognised as one of the game’s best minds, Hansen is currently head coach of Toyota Verblitz in Japan’s Rugby League One alongside fellow former All Blacks head coach Ian Foster.
Hansen’s infamously blunt attitude made for a typically measured analysis of New Zealand’s 2024 campaign.
“Well, I wouldn’t say we’ve made great strides, but I think we’re still going as well as we were,” he told DSPN when asked about the progress of the forward pack in particular.
“This is a team that should have won the World Cup, and they were robbed of the World Cup as far as I’m concerned with some poor decisions by things that were out of their control that cost them a World Cup. So they’re a very, very competitive side.
“They’ve got some very good rugby players; the front row, the props stocks they have got at the moment, I’d have died to have them in 2019. They’re good young men and playing really well. And there’s a couple of new boys that have arrived on the scene and they look really good, promising players. So there’s plenty of depth in that team.”
The talent stocks in New Zealand are always undeniably high, but there are some players that lay just out of reach of All Blacks selection eligibility.
While Robertson has urged New Zealand Rugby to keep an open mind on selection policy for players based overseas, as it stands only players plying their trade in Super Rugby Pacific can be chosen to play in the black jersey.
“It’s something you think about a lot because it’s obvious they want Richie Mo’unga back. Are we doing it because they want Richie back or are we doing it because we think it’s right? That’s the question you have to answer.
“I think it’s really dangerous if we say that South Africa is the model we should copy because it’s worked for them.
“South Africa are in a totally different situation to us. They can’t afford to keep their players, so what they’re doing works for them.
“We can’t afford to actually ruin our competition, so we have to be really smart about doing it if we’re doing it.
“What happens to the people back here? Do they all decide they want to go? If you’re a first five at the moment and you were hearing they want Richie back, do you go, ‘well I’m out of here’?
“That’s the challenge they’ve got and they need to sort it out as quickly as possible. As we know, there’s a few other things that have got to be sorted out first.”
The focus then shifted to the necessary improvements Hansen sees for the All Blacks moving forward, which he said lay at the feet of the men in charge.
“I think it starts with the people running it. I think they’ve worked out that this job wasn’t as easy as they thought it was going to be, and they’ve had some good lessons, and they’ve openly said that, which is great, because they’re acknowledging that they have to learn, and as they learn, the team will learn.”
