By DAVID LEGGAT
BRISBANE - Steve Hansen doesn't look or sound like a missionary.
But the former Canterbury coach, coming to the end of his reign in charge of Wales, does have a clear idea of the shape he wants the national game in the principality to be in when he boards
the plane for home.
"I want to get the nation back where it wants to be and I know when I leave it will be better than it was when I found it," he said as Wales count down to tomorrow night's quarter-final against England at Suncorp Stadium.
The spirited display against the All Blacks - not many teams have ever scored more than Wales' 37 points against them - has given renewed heart that the grim days of the past two decades might be coming to an end.
That loss came after a run of five wins - which in turn followed 10 successive defeats, some pretty ugly.
The bluff, gruff, bearlike Hansen is heartened by what he believes is a shift in Welsh attitudes, in a country whose biggest problem, in rugby terms, is itself.
In-fighting, insularity and pigheadedness are all labels which have stuck hard with Welsh rugby in the last two decades. Times might just be changing.
"The really good thing is people can see the things we're doing are working," Hansen said, without wanting to go over the old, well-documented ground of how Wales got into their present mess. "Now more people are coming across to our side than being negative."
As veteran hooker Robin McBryde pointed out, it is a young Welsh side - with the odd grizzled old salt like himself at 33 and lock Gareth Llewellyn at 34 - thrown in.
"We've still got a lot of work to do. This is a young side and people have been saying this World Cup possibly came four years too early. Maybe that's true to some extent.
"But we've got the experience of playing New Zealand, then England, the two favourites in the cup. We've got to take that back to Wales and hopefully spread what we've learned into the clubs.
"We've been down too long."
Hansen had a fair idea what the reaction would have been back in Wales had they failed to make the quarter-finals. "The expectation was if we didn't qualify we would be mugs."
England are strong favourites to win. A narrow defeat might still be defined as progress for Wales, but the big worry is that if they get thumped, how much of the good work of the last few days will be lost.
Full World Cup coverage
By DAVID LEGGAT
BRISBANE - Steve Hansen doesn't look or sound like a missionary.
But the former Canterbury coach, coming to the end of his reign in charge of Wales, does have a clear idea of the shape he wants the national game in the principality to be in when he boards
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