Rugby World Cup 2015: Beers are on us, Boks!

Steve Hansen shares a beer with Grant Fox following the All Blacks semifinal win over South Africa. Photo / Getty

Steve Hansen will happily buy the beers tonight for his South African counterpart Heyneke Meyer - and a relieved nation of New Zealanders will thank the All Blacks coach for it.

The rival coaches in this morning's Rugby World Cup semifinal set aside their normal tradition of having a midweek pre-match meal together, succumbing to the challenges of London's traffic and a suffocating week of pressure. But both promised to commit to the other agreed ritual - that the victor buys the beers after the match.

Hansen will undoubtedly head for his wallet with relief after, for large portions of the tense semi-final, it looked like Meyer might be the man shelling out over the bar at Twickenham.

The All Blacks coach will happily pay the bill but while the amber fluid might taste a little bitter for the Bok coach following the 20-18 defeat to the defending champions, the deep respect between the two men - titled a 'bro-mance' by some cheeky media - looks set to continue with Hansen lauding the brave challenge of Meyer's Boks.

"To come out on the right side of a contest like that is pretty satisfying," said Hansen. "(I'm) very proud of what our guys did...we'll look forward to seeing Argentina and Australia smash each other tomorrow.

"Sometimes good performances can look like they did against France and sometimes they look like they did against South Africa"

And who does the All Blacks coach prefer to face in the final?

"I don't care," he responded. "Whoever we get will be very tough."

Asked by reporters what he said to Hansen immediately after match, Meyer replied: "I just said to him, 'well done'. We just weren't good enough after half time. We should have capitalised on the extra man. No excuses, we wanted to make our country proud, we did. But I'm sorry we let our country down (by not progressing through to the final)."