There's a large extent of truth to that, but it's also true that if Woodcock and Franks were playing out of their skin, this role reversal wouldn't have happened.
Rugby is a 23-man game these days, but it still matters who starts and who is on the bench, and whether there is a changing of the guard as such in the front-row doesn't matter.
What matters is that the players believe there could be and probably Woodcock and Franks may think there already has been.
Hansen has sent a subtle message to his players that starting places are not set in stone.
Players hear that a lot, yet they often struggle to believe it as actions don't always support words. Not in this case.
As long as they have been fit, Woodcock and Franks have been the preferred starters since 2010.
They have nearly 200 caps between them and two weeks from the World Cup getting super serious, they have been given a clear warning that they must continue earning their selection.
They haven't played badly, it's just they haven't done enough away from the set-piece and the other two have. Now the pressure is on to show their hunger and value - and those not in the starting group have been given reassurance that the selectors will reward those who deliver.
And it's not only Woodcock and Franks who will be reassessing.
All the long-serving players will have taken a moment of quiet reflection on seeing the team selection and reminded themselves that performance is everything.
"Outside looking in, I think everyone can get excited about 'is this the game he has to put his hand up for'," Hansen said.
"We expect people to put their hand up every time they play and then we as selectors have to make the tough calls on who to leave out.
"What you can't have is people worrying about selection because they don't control that. They control their performance and again the message from us is 'you prepare well and do what you have to do that makes you play well and put the pressure on us to select you'.
"Once you get players realising that, they know they just have to go out and play well."
This desire for healthy competition is being driven by the lessons of 2007, when the All Blacks appeared almost haphazard and shambolic in the way they selected teams through the pool rounds.
The players received such mixed messages that they didn't feel there was genuine competition - more a random pendulum that might or might not swing in their favour.
Now in his fourth World Cup - he was head coach of Wales in 2003 - Hansen is determined to take all the knowledge he has accumulated and not repeat past failings.
"The first one I went to I was naive as a coach and I didn't really know anything about what we were doing," he said.
"I think the more you go the more you understand the make-up of the tournament and what you have got to do.
"In 2007 we made a lot of mistakes as a coaching group. We had a pretty good side and didn't get past the quarterfinals. We have got a very good side now but we might not get past the quarterfinals again. But it won't be for making the mistakes we made back then."
The players know where they stand with Hansen and that performance will be fairly judged and rewarded.
And if they didn't know that before the team to play Georgia was picked, they certainly do now.
