Watch: Steve Hansen on his All Blacks inspiration

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen during training this week at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Photo / Brett Phibbs

If it seems like there are similarities between the All Blacks of today and the great side of the mid-to-late 1960s, it's because there are.

Or at least All Blacks coach Steve Hansen hopes there are because he has tried to cast his team in the mould of the one that so inspired him 50 years ago.

It was the athleticism and skill level of the likes of Sir Colin Meads, Sir Brian Lochore and Sir Wilson Whineray that connected so deeply with Hansen and the the death of the former has touched him and the All Blacks.

Hansen says he can became hooked on rugby as a kid, largely because of his father's love of the game. Once he learned about the All Blacks, saw the great players of that era and found out more about the legacy of the team, he knew he wanted to do be part of it somehow one day.

"For me when I first started getting involved in rugby it was in the black and white TV days and there weren't as many tests as there are now and the names in the 60s were such big names and such great players," says Hansen.

"Especially that 1967 side that went though unbeaten. Sir Brian Lochore was a player who I admired a lot. Sir Wilson Whineray, a prop who could run like a back, Ken Gray and Jazz Muller there were great stories about that team that captured your imagination not only about the team, but about how they played.

"Our backs have always been seen to be skilful and to play with guile but that forward pack, regardless of who they picked, through that time was always playing like backs and it was not something that was natural back then.

"I have always thought it was something that if we have done it before why can't we do it again? And in my coaching it has always inspired me to have forwards in the team who can run with the ball and catch and pass and it probably extends from watching those guys."