All Blacks all in the mind

New All Blacks coach Steve Hansen. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Keeping an open mind was the key to Steve Hansen landing the All Black job and it will be imperative for everyone else to do the same if he's to keep it.

The job was always going to be his once the World Cup was popped in the cabinet. He's the only man eligible with any real international experience and for all that he may at times have cast himself as the disgruntled moper, only happy in dark corners pulling the wings off flies, he is by trait naturally empathetic and surprisingly astute.

In a former life, he walked the beat; burdened good folk with news they didn't want to hear, which has given him the ability to keep rugby in perspective.

His understanding of people has been built in the real world and that's probably why the players all have a natural rapport and deep respect for him.

They are also drawn to a character who is responsive to new ideas and alternative means of doing things - this flexibility apparently being a quality that impressed the board in the near three-hour grilling Hansen endured on Friday before being appointed.

But as admirable as these traits are, and deserving as he was of the job, none of this necessarily provides peace of mind that he's going to be an overwhelming success.

International rugby teams have long ceased to be about the head coach in isolation. He can set the vision and create the blueprint but so much depends now on the quality of the assistants and specialists. One weak link in the chain and the whole thing breaks down. The team Hansen is believed to be proposing - former Chiefs coach Ian Foster as assistant, former Canterbury coach Aussie McLean as defensive analyst and Mick Byrne as specialist - does not immediately scream champion mix. Here's where minds have to stay open; judgement has to be reserved until there is something by which they can be fairly judged.

The same is true of Hansen himself. Of the new set-up, he says: "I'll take over the strategy of how we are going to play. I'll still have some involvement in the individual forwards and backs processes. But clearly one of the assistants will look to do predominantly backs or forwards and we are going to need to have a defensive coach. That is a requirement - just about every international team has got one and rightly so. We need someone who will fit that role.

"We need someone to replicate what Ted was so magnificent at - someone with an analytical brain who can break down the game and I think that person naturally fits with being a defence coach because that would go hand-in-glove and someone is going to have to do [former scrum coach] Mike Cron's job.

"Do I do it? I worked with him since I started at the Crusaders and I have a good understanding of what is going on there and someone comes in to do the lineouts."

Hansen's eight years as assistant have schooled him on just what roles need to be filled. But can he be the new Henry? Does he have the same breadth of vision and that same relentless drive to hyper-analyse?

For most of Henry's eight years, the All Blacks were innovators - standard setters and game changers. They were the team everyone had to chase and much of that was down to Henry. He went to bed late and woke up early; he watched and he watched and he thought and he thought. Technically he joked that he didn't have much of a clue any more but there was never any need for him to worry about that. There were others there to hammer in the nuts and bolts - his value was that tactically he was light years ahead and this sits as Hansen's biggest challenge.

Can the new man read the future as well as Henry did? Can he keep the All Blacks as the game's trend setters? And can he respond to the immediate challenge of focusing minds and bringing players back to the grind of test football?

It's been an extended period of celebration for those who won the World Cup and for some, finding the motivation could be tricky. England were awful in 2004 after they won in 2003 and South Africa had a quiet 2008. The All Blacks don't have the same luxury of forgiveness in their world - 2012 has to be as good as 2011, if not better - that's been the All Black way for more than 100 years.

Hansen feels that the future should be viewed with optimism rather than dread. "You have to put a full stop on what we achieved and say this is a new group and this group hasn't won the World Cup. Our challenge quite clearly to me is that we enhance the legacy the All Blacks have and we take our game to another level and I believe that is achievable with the types of players we have available and the types of young players coming through. If we set our goals strongly and we live by our own expectations as long as the expectations of being an All Black, then we will be fine."

Partly fuelling his confidence is the luxury of knowing that he will at least be starting his tenure with enough playing experience and talent to form an outstanding All Black side.

Dan Carter and Richie McCaw are locked in. So are Owen Franks, Tony Woodcock, Keven Mealamu, Sam Whitelock, Ali Williams, Kieran Read, Jerome Kaino, Piri Weepu, Ma'a Nonu, Conrad Smith, Richard Kahui, Cory Jane, Sonny Bill Williams and Israel Dagg. It's only Brad Thorn and Mils Muliaina who have been lost and the latter was on the slide by the World Cup anyway.

Hansen's vision sees a continuation of the player empowerment model favoured by Henry. He probably wouldn't have got the job if he'd believed in any other system and his advantage is that not only does he think it is the right way to set things up, he's also conditioned to working in partnership with the senior players.

"There is an expectation with this playing group that they have a say and, in my humble opinion, that is the right way to go about it," says Hansen. "We just have to continue to make our leadership group effective. That might mean shuffling the cards a bit and doing it subtly different because a little bit of change is refreshing. But there will be no change in the philosophy of letting the players have ownership in everythingwe do.

"You want them to have ownership and responsibility, particularly when we are under the pump."