Rugby World Cup 2023: Sir Steve Hansen takes the blame for failed All Blacks 2019 campaign

Rugby World Cup-winning All Blacks coach Sir Steve Hansen says he has to “take the blame” for the failed 2019 campaign, saying he didn’t demand enough from the players.

Hansen, who enjoyed plenty of success as All Blacks coach between 2012 and 2019, led the team to victory over Australia at Twickenham in 2015, losing just three times in 54 tests en route to that win.

He was the coach when the All Blacks bowed out of the 2019 World Cup in Japan against England at the semifinal stage, and Hansen has told The Times he was responsible for the failure.

“I have to take the blame. We beat Ireland pretty convincingly in the quarter-finals. I earmarked that as a danger but we also had Kieran Read injured and I was trying to make sure we didn’t lose confidence if he was out. I wasn’t demanding enough. I didn’t push enough buttons and we went in a little soft mentally and England came in on fire.

“World Cups are the hardest things to win. We were good enough to win in 2007 and we were good enough to win in 2019, but we didn’t. And that’s the facts. That tells you how hard it is to win it.

Steve Hansen and Richie McCaw with the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Photo / Photosport

“You have to survive three weeks in a row against really good opponents. You have a mental slip and are a few per cent down and the other team are 5 per cent above themselves, then you are gone.”

Hansen was a member of Sir Graham Henry’s coaching staff at the 2007 World Cup where the All Blacks were beaten in the quarter-finals by France and in 2011 when they won in Auckland. He was at the helm in 2015 when they won again and became the first team to go back-to-back.

Hansen, who caused a fuss last week when it was announced he joined the Wallabies camp to help Eddie Jones with his side’s preparation for the tournament, likened winning a World Cup to cleaning windows.

“I always used to talk about it like cleaning the windows,” Hansen told The Times. “You think you have cleaned the windows but you haven’t done those bits in the corner, those little five-per-centers, because you have got used to it being right.

“It is not something that you can see happening. It is subconscious. That is sport. To be able to be successful week in, week out is a hard thing to do.”

He also said the World Cup in France was “going to be great”.

“There is a shitload of pressure that comes in. France playing at home will be under that pressure. Ireland have never gone beyond the quarter-finals. They will be feeling that pressure. One of the outcomes of the All Blacks being as strong as they were for a while is that it has driven everyone else to rise to that level and beyond it. Isn’t that exciting?”