After eight years as an assistant and now three as head coach, inevitable murmurings of it being time for change will soon be doing the rounds. But the often quoted idea that players, after a period, need to hear a new voice is simply lazy analysis.
What the players need to hear is a voice saying the right things. Good coaching engages the players.
They don't get tired of being given clear, honest and helpful guidance. If they believe in the game plan, integrity of selection and culture of the team, they will continue to trust and respond well to the coach.
And that's the question the NZRU had to ask in regard to Hansen: is he continuing to improve and evolve as a coach to stay relevant and influential?
Can he continue to engage the team, to lead and manage them towards continual improvement? They have concluded 'yes'.
Yes, because Hansen, almost incredibly for a Cantabarian who began working life as a policeman, is a flexible thinker. Yes, because while Hansen is across every tiny detail of his squad and strategy, he's informed rather than controlling.
The All Blacks since 2012 have become the most consistent yet driven side of the professional era. They have an overwhelming sense of purpose, yet are more relaxed and affable then they ever were in the last World Cup cycle.
Will any of this change if they don't win the World Cup next year? Unlikely. Will Hansen suddenly be finished as a coach if the All Blacks are squeezed out in the semifinals? No, because, as a flexible thinker, he'll review and adapt in 2016 and get back on with the job of searching for continual improvement.
Besides, will there be a credible alternative to Hansen by 2016? Todd Blackadder, Dave Rennie and Tom Coventry are all equipped to step up but lack international experience. The offshore candidates such as Joe Schmidt, Vern Cotter and Warren Gatland presumably can't come home and straight into the job as that would immediately make a mockery of the domestic pathway.
Nope.
Hansen is the solitary contender and, if his contract is extended, it's probable he may find room in his 2016 coaching team for an emerging coach - Blackadder, Rennie or Coventry - to be groomed to take over.
The final advantage of signing Hansen before Christmas is it will provide certainty about the future-never a bad thing in World Cup year. The situation, as alluded to by NZRU chief executive Steve Tew, is that agreement has been reached in principle. It's just a matter of sorting out the detail. For detail, read money.
Whatever Hansen wants . . . give it to him. If he asks for $1 million a year - who says he's not worth it when Warren Gatland took home close to $1.5 million last year?
Who says that would be over the top when England's Stuart Lancaster is reportedly paid close to $900,000 a year?
There's so much agonising and fretting about keeping key players here, so much made of their importance to the short and longer-term prospects of the All Blacks. That's understandable.
Kieran Read, Sam Whitelock, Dane Coles, Aaron Smith, Beauden Barrett, Julian Savea and Ben Smith are rocks on which a world champion side can be built but only if the bloke at the helm knows what he's doing.
And Hansen, clearly, knows what he's doing. His record as head coach is a bit ridiculous - played 42,won38, drawn two and lost two.
The best way to make sense of that is to credit him with being the coach who said the All Blacks would no longer lose. If they are defeated, it's because the other lot have won.
Under Hansen, the All Blacks haven't given away anything. England splatted them fair and square and South Africa, on balance, played better rugby for longer periods this year.
Two measly defeats in three years . . . that really is worth, on market rates, close to $1 million a year. He's not thought to be asking for anywhere near that, but does have a case that the NZRU need to bring their thinking in line with the rest of the world.
They are understood to have pegged the head coaching job in the $500,000-$600,000 bracket.
The NZRU are thought to be a bit nervous, believing they can't afford Hansen.
They need to see it the other way - they can't afford to lose Hansen.
