Steve Hansen to reveal post-Rugby World Cup plans soon

New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen is to reveal his own intentions for life after next year’s World Cup Japan at some point prior to the turn of the New Year. And it remains to be seen if the decisions of both men will be linked in any way.

Schmidt’s stock, already high back in his native country, will have skyrocketed in the wake of Saturday’s defeat of the All Blacks — the second time in three meetings that the Kiwi has masterminded the downfall of the world champions.

Hansen has spent the last 14 years with the ‘ABs’, the first eight as assistant coach to Graham Henry and the last six as the main man, and indicated after the 2015 World Cup win he was likely to bow out after the Lions tour last year.

Persuaded to stay on through to Japan by the union, he suggested prior to that Lions tour that 2019 would likely be his curtain call and he has in the past said Schmidt was “someone who could potentially come home and coach the All Blacks”.

Whatever the future holds for both men, it seems inconceivable both don’t have strong leanings towards an eventual decision already — and that Schmidt wouldn’t have some inkling as to which way the wind is blowing back home.

It may be that he would have to serve some time on the Super Rugby coaching circuit or, like Hansen, in an assistant role with the national team, but Hansen was coy this time when asked again if Schmidt could do a job with the world champs.

“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Joe,” he replied. “We’re all going to be making announcements shortly. But not right now. I decided before I left (New Zealand on tour) that I was going to make one (an announcement) and I’ll do that when I get home at some stage.”

The temptation to stay in Ireland is hardly inconsiderable. Schmidt, despite coaching some of these players for eight years now, continues to raise standards. Ireland are Grand Slam champions and have won a series in Australia and beaten New Zealand this year.

But coaching the world’s market leaders is another beast entirely.

“You know, it’s constant,” said Hansen the morning after the night before in the Aviva. “It doesn’t go away. It’s just something you have to embrace and have to accept and get on with. It’s not going to go away, whether you want it to be there or not. And I dare say it will stay there for us, whether we see ourselves as the number one team in the world or not, or the favourite for the World Cup or not. Everybody will still have huge expectations for us.”

Hansen again rued the lack of discipline and the missed opportunities on Saturday night but he added to the postscript by revealing that his is a team trying to evolve and that they still find themselves “stuck between the old way and the new”.

There was no elaboration on what that entailed but he did talk about the differences in tasks faced here in Europe and against South Africa.

“We’ve been doing what we’ve been doing for a long time. If you look at world rugby, there’s a fair amount of teams doing the same thing. The structures are fairly similar and we’re trying to add to that and put another layer of decision-making in.

“We haven’t nailed that yet but we’re getting there. What we are seeing are the opportunities that we’re missing when we’re not making the right decisions. So, eventually, we’re got to start making the right decision and then it’s game on.” They’re not alone in that evolution.

Ireland are a very different beast now to the side that so keenly felt the loss of key players against Argentina at the last World Cup. Winning here without four of their best players shows just how far they come, and Hansen has tracked that progress.

“They’re fitter, so whoever is doing their conditioning work needs a pat on the back. Their defence is great. Both teams (Saturday) night defended for long periods really, really well, so Andy (Farrell) is a great defence coach.

“Their scrum was good, it took us a while to get on top of that. So everybody in the team is doing their bit and Joe is obviously leading it very well. They’ve become a team that believes in themselves and are priding themselves on how they’re playing.

“It’s their turn at the moment so we’ll see how they cope with that.”