To start in game of smoke and mirrors
end as Ireland stuttered past Argentina and the All Blacks escaped Twickenham with a onepoint win.
Hansen is not backing away from the hype.
“Well, it’s No 1 v 2 so whoever wins will be the best team in the world,” he said. “Regardless of rankings that’s what people will take out of it. It will be a goodie.
“They’ve built a game that suits them, they’ve got a lot of depth. They lost (Seán) O’Brien (above) yesterday and (Dan Leavy) comes on and plays just as good. So they’ll be a strong side.
“There’s enough experience in the group to know that this is the type of game where they don’t get any bigger.
“We talked about last week being a big game, and 80,000 people in the stadium and England only being beaten once in the last 16 or 17 games at home, and Ireland haven’t been beaten too often at home either and they’re the No 2 side in the world.
“So you don’t get to play 1 v 2 that often, we’re in two different hemispheres, so when they do come about they become pretty big games.”
Hansen side-stepped any talk of Schmidt’s future when he was asked if he had any advice for his opposite number ahead of his impending decision on his future.
“If I did have any advice for him I wouldn’t be telling him through the media,” he said.
“If he needs my advice on that he’ll ask me and well have a cold beer or a cup of coffee and we’ll talk about it.
“He is a smart man, Joe. He’ll do what is right for his family and make a decision based around all of those things, as I am sure all of us would.”
Meanwhile, Hansen has called centre Ngani Laumape into his squad as cover for Sonny Bill Williams who suffered a shoulder injury against England, although Williams has not been ruled out of Saturday’s game.