“Really we only had one poor week and that was against England.” Steve Hansen, on For The Love Of Rugby: South Africa.
Steve Hansen is the only coach who has taken a side to a World Cup chasing a third title in a row. His All Blacks lost one match at the 2019 tournament, the semi-final against England. Seven years on, he still defends it.
“…we went there in 19 and everyone said we played poorly, but really we only had one poor week and that was against England… we beat everybody else that had been number one in the world… either previously or after.”
Steven Kitshoff, who won two World Cups at loosehead for the Springboks, was asking the questions. He wanted to know what stands between Rassie Erasmus and a third straight title. Hansen’s answer was hunger.
Erasmus, the other name in the argument over rugby’s greatest coach, takes South Africa to Australia next year.
So was 2019 really one poor week, or had the All Blacks’ hunger already gone?
One poor week, and a record that backs him
Hansen said it on For The Love Of Rugby: South Africa, released on Tuesday 22 September. He won the 2011 World Cup as an All Blacks assistant and the 2015 title as head coach. The record backs him.
| New Zealand at the 2019 World Cup | Score | That opponent at No 1 in 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| South Africa, pool | Won 23-13 | After the final |
| Ireland, quarter-final | Won 46-14 | Going into the tournament |
| England, semi-final | Lost 7-19 | One week, after the semi |
| Wales, bronze final | Won 40-17 | Two weeks in August |
Scores: 2019 Rugby World Cup records. Rankings: World Rugby rankings history.
No other year has seen five different nations at No 1. At the one World Cup where that happened, Hansen’s side beat three of the other four. The fourth knocked them out.
Read like that, “one poor week” is a warning. Hansen went straight on to say so.
“So it’s, they’re not easy to win World Cups. You’ve got to stay on the whole time. So that hunger can’t be just there for the, for the big games.”
In Australia that means seven matches, four of them knockouts.
Steve Hansen on the real enemy: a wee soft underbelly
Kitshoff asked what the big challenge would be for Erasmus and his squad. Hansen said it was being hungry enough, the one thing no selection meeting can fix.
“…the longer you go… sometimes it’s harder to stay in that hunger mode because you’ve been successful. You’ve tasted a lot of benefits from that success. And, you know, it’s easier to get a wee soft underbelly.”
That is the problem of a squad that has already won. The core of this Springboks group has two winner’s medals, and a third has to be wanted as badly as the first.
Then he said the part South African supporters should pin up somewhere.
“…no one’s done it before. So that becomes something that, you know, they’re in the position to be able to give it a crack. You’ve got to win two in a row to be able to have a go.”
Two sides in the history of the tournament have been in that position. New Zealand tried in 2019. South Africa get the second go.
Kitshoff has seen the other side of it
Kitshoff played 83 Tests, and when he came back to hunger he described what the Springboks talked about in their own dressing room.
“…flights become easier. You don’t want to wait in line anymore. You… almost take everything for… granted. And then… ego starts into play and then you become a has-been…”
That was the squad’s own warning to itself. Later in the hour he said what the group did about it.
“…as soon as you got found out that you’re not adding value or you’re not bringing yourself or, uh, your personality to the team… you were quickly moved out of the system because you got seen as… a bad influence.”
The line was drawn at small things.
“…it’s small things like not packing the bags away or those type of things, it gets seen as… a very negative thing because you’re not serving the… bigger goal, the bigger team.”
The bags are the tell. A squad that treats an unpacked kit bag as a warning sign does not drift through a Test match. It fits the Monday reviews Kitshoff has described in that camp, where nobody shouts on the Saturday night and Monday morning is when it hurts.
Everyone has an ego. The good ones tap it on the nose
Asked how he kept a winning group hungry over years, Hansen went to honesty before he went to ego.
“So even if you’re winning, having those conversations with each other and keeping each other honest and, you know, when you’re seeing someone’s ego get out of line, then you pull it back…”
He was not asking for a squad without one.
“…everyone has an ego, you got to have an ego to be good… But if you can tap it on the nose and say, get back in there, it works for you as opposed to working against you.”
Read also: what Hansen told the All Blacks after they lost the series, the same honesty turned on his old team.
Erasmus keeps his players uncomfortable
The answer to Hansen’s warning came from Hansen, in the first minute of the conversation, before hunger had been mentioned.
“…I don’t think the players will be allowed to get comfortable. He’ll keep creating an environment that has a little bit of discomfort in it and they’ll understand his expectations and why he’s got them…”
The evidence is on the team sheets. Erasmus capped 30 players in four Tests against New Zealand. For Perth on Sunday 27 September he has changed 13 of the starters who won in Baltimore. Only Eben Etzebeth and Ethan Hooker survive.
Few players in that squad can be sure of next week’s shirt. It is hard to grow a soft underbelly without one, and it is the other half of how Erasmus manages the individuals in that group.
So, one poor week? On the record, yes, and Steve Hansen is entitled to say it. On his own theory, one poor week is exactly how hunger fails at a World Cup. The drop only has to last eighty minutes, on the wrong night.
South Africa know both halves of that. They lost a pool match at each of their last two World Cups and won both tournaments anyway.
A poor week in the pool can be survived. From the round of 16 there are four more nights, and any one of them can be the wrong one.
Read next: Erasmus won the series 3-1 and would not call the Springboks the better team. It is how a coach guards against a soft underbelly.
Your turn: one poor week, or hunger gone?
Two ways to see 2019. Either Hansen is right, and his side lost to England on the one night it could not afford to. Or the soft underbelly he describes had already arrived, and England found it. Which was it? Settle it below.
Frequently asked
What did Steve Hansen say about the 2019 World Cup?
On For The Love Of Rugby: South Africa, released on Tuesday 22 September, Hansen said the All Blacks “only had one poor week and that was against England”, and that they beat every other side that had been world No 1. New Zealand lost the semi-final 19-7 to England.
Has any team won three Rugby World Cups in a row?
No. New Zealand won in 2011 and 2015 and lost the 2019 semi-final. South Africa won in 2019 and 2023, and go to Australia in 2027 as the second side to try.
When is the 2027 Rugby World Cup?
In Australia, from 1 October to 13 November 2027. It has 24 teams and a round of 16, and the final is at Stadium Australia in Sydney.
