Hansen, with a burning desire to have the All Blacks become the first side to win consecutive World Cups, set in place a four-year plan and scoured the rugby-obsessed country for the most committed players he could find.
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A few media in New Zealand and Britain questioned whether the blow could lead to McCaw being cited ahead of next Saturday’s World Cup final.
The looming retirement from Test rugby of greats Richie McCaw and Dan Carter will not figure in the All Blacks preparation for Saturday’s World Cup final against Australia, assistant coach Ian Foster said.
“There is a lot of credit there for the coaching staff and the senior players in the team also took ownership”.
Facing Carter, now in the twilight of his career, was the Springboks’ rising fly-half Handre Pollard.
“We knew South Africa would give us a different game – and it turned out that way”.
McCaw said the All Blacks’ win over the Springboks at Twickenham was every bit as hard as his team expected.
“I can’t wait to get into training this week and prepare as well as I possibly can”.
“When you have performances like we did in Cardiff (62-13 quarter-final win against France) it’s very hard mentally to get back into that same spot”, Hansen added.
“But our discipline in the second half was just not good enough”.
New Zealand’s Daniel Carter (R) in action with South Africa’s Duane Vermeulen during the Rugby Union World Cup 2015 semi-final match between South Africa and New Zealand at Twickenham in London.
But when it comes to conceding tries from open play, only England’s Anthony Watson and Fijian five-eighth Ben Volavola have breached the Wallabies’ tryline this World Cup.
“You can fall into the trap, and I potentially fell into that trap in Cardiff against (pool opponents) Georgia”.
Matfield, whose tournament was hampered by a hamstring injury, said the team had done well to come back from their opening loss against Japan and while they may have lost, they came extremely close to going through to the final. “It’s quite easy to start thinking about the result and what could happen”.
The half ended with Kaino in the bin for deliberately kicking the ball when in an offside position, meaning that New Zealand would be a player down for the first 9 minutes of the second half.
“You’re never waiting for someone else to spark things up”, he said.
“So many youngsters came through in all positions, and I think this can be one of the best teams in the world going forward”. We had a chance and we didn’t take it. We should have been in the final and I will never settle for second – to lose by one point or by 50 remains the same.
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“Even yesterday in that second half, they just played the patient game, kicked in behind us and kept us in our own half”. “It’s simple. You have just got to stay in the moment and not worry about the outcome”.
