"I thought if we were lucky enough to get [to the final] and we'd done ourselves proud, in being the people that we are, then we'd have some extra friends.
"I think that might have been the case...a lot of people have realized that we're not the big bad ogres that sometimes we're printed to be in the media.
"We're actually just ordinary people who can play rugby reasonably well... Life's too short to not have fun either."
He was pleased the All Blacks repaid the faith shown by fans who had travelled around the United Kingdom to support the team, as well as those back in New Zealand.
"To be able to come here and finish the job on a successful night...I can imagine things at home are really rocking," Hansen said.
He reckoned a few might not make it to work and "that's not a bad thing either".
His captain Richie McCaw also reflected on the past seven weeks of the tournament and said it could be hard to enjoy the moment while under so much pressure.
"Sometimes we think the end goal is the happy part. But it's doing the work along the way that you've got to enjoy and that makes the end part, if you achieve it, mean you can sit back and smile.
"That's one thing, personally, I've really tried to enjoy the six or seven weeks we've had here. To get the result as well, I don't feel empty, I feel warm inside and proud of the men you've been into battle with."
The 2015 victory felt different to 2011 version, said McCaw.
"It was just a massive relief four years ago. Turning up here today, we just wanted to do the best job that we could. It was rather than a huge relief, it was a sense of satisfaction of a job well done."
