Whatever the result of Saturday morning’s test match between the All Blacks and the World Champion Springboks, rugby fans looking back on this week years from now will be more likely to remember the minor furore that surrounded Steve Hansen’s involvement with the Wallabies than the outcome at Twickenham.
The former coach Hansen and his successor Ian Foster were both a touch glib about the matter of Shag’s sessions helping out in the Wallaby camp. It’s only for a week. He’s doing it for free. Eddie Jones is an old mate. Fozzie knew about it months ago.
Eddie Jones is many things, but principally he’s no mug. If Hansen’s involvement in the Wallabies camp would do anything other than boost their chances of winning the World Cup, Jones would not allow him near the team. The discord and raised eyebrows it’s thrown into the All Blacks camp will be a bonus for the clever Aussie coach – Foster might have known about it, but veteran hooker Dane Coles was clearly in the dark until informed by journalists. Fans are entitled to wonder: Does Foster talk to his players?
Hansen stands in the firmament among our greatest coaches. The All Blacks won 93 of the 107 tests they played under him; an 87 per cent winning ratio. It’s a ridiculous number – the best winning ratio of anyone to coach in the professional era. Yes, he had a rare group of all-time greats among his troops, but it can be fairly said that from the start of his involvement with the side in 2004, the All Blacks pulled ahead in quality, innovation and results from what should have been a fiercely competitive pack of top-flight international teams.
The result at Twickenham on Saturday is of little real importance in the RWC scheme of things. But the Wallabies are on the friendly side of the draw in France. Even in their present wobbly state, they can make the semifinals. If the All Blacks make it that far, they might be battered from a bruising quarter-final against either Ireland or South Africa. We could even meet our transtasman cousins in the final.
If the Wallabies beat the All Blacks in the knockout stages of the World Cup, then regardless of how much or how little he helped them that result will sit alongside the 2015 title win when Kiwis discuss the legacy of Steve Hansen.
