Steve Hansen has some advice for his All Blacks coaching successor

“What we were trying to do has never been done before, and with success comes a little less desperation.

“It was a perfect storm really, we played South Africa first up, got that job done, had lesser opponents after that so that mental side of the game didn’t come into it.

“We had a massive week into [the quarterfinal with] Ireland, and that was a game that had everyone on the end of their seat. When we won that and won it so comfortably, subconsciously I think all of us may have relaxed a little bit. Let go of two percent of that desperation we had. It’s not something that you do deliberately, it just happens.”

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Hansen’s side pummelled a hapless Ireland side 46-14 in a match where the Irish self-imploded to gift the All Blacks countless opportunities from turnover ball along with a horror error rate. It would be a stark contrast to how clinical the English would be a week later.

“Then we played England who have been waiting for two and a half years to play this one game. Very, very desperate, right up at 100 percent, and if we are at 92 percent, that’s a big shift. They came at us and played well and deserved to win.

In hindsight, Hansen believes the messages during the week may have been off, given the preceding win in the quarterfinal.

“I looked at myself, and the messages during the week and maybe they weren’t on the money the way they could have been from a mental point of view, knowing that we have just come off a big win against Ireland.”

This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and was republished with permission.