Hansen: It’s the right thing to be doing
Departing All Blacks coach Steve Hansen still feels the time is right to step down after returning to New Zealand yesterday.
All the players and coaching staff returned to the country to a small welcome from All Black fans at Auckland Airport.
Fans were outnumbered by the media who came to hear some of the last words Hansen will say after 16 years in the job.
Despite the semifinal exit at in Japan at the World Cup, Hansen insisted he was proud what the team achieved at the tournament.
‘‘I’m really proud of them,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘Obviously disappointed at the same time, we just dropped one game at the wrong time in the competition and paid the price for it.
‘‘But either side of those games we played really good rugby.’’
Hansen admitted it has been emotional for this group to say their farewells.
‘‘It’s like any place you work at for a long time, it’s hard to say goodbye,’’ he said. ‘‘But it’s the right time and the right thing to be doing.’’
There hasn’t been any nationwide outrage at the All Blacks not winning the World Cup, and compassion shown towards the players who displayed their emotions after the semifinal defeat to England.
Hansen believes it’s good that the public got to see how hurt the players were.
‘‘You’ve only got to look at the stats for New Zealand suicides and mental health and it’s not great,’’ he said. ‘‘So allowing yourself to be vulnerable and show emotion is really important.
‘‘We get called role models and I’m not so sure if we are or not. But if people want to call us role models, it’s great these guys are role modelling the fact you can be emotional and vulnerable.’’
The next All Blacks coach will be announced by the end of the year and Hansen all but said he wanted his assistant for the past eight years, Ian Foster to get the job, believing the former Chiefs coach has grown during his time with the team. ‘‘He’s like all of us, we continue to develop and he’s a very intelligent rugby man.’’
Hansen added that keeping continuity inside the All Blacks coaching team was a philosophy that had worked in the past.
‘‘It’s not for me to say who should take over but continuity has won us two World Cups,’’ he said.