Steve Hansen: Where the All Blacks must improve to win the World Cup

Sir Steve Hansen believes the All Blacks are capable of winning the Rugby World Cup this year if improvements are made on the field.

The World Cup-winning former All Blacks coach has been keeping a close eye on Ian Foster’s men and believes the team needs to improve in the collisions department, an area in which Ireland excelled in their historic series win in New Zealand last year.

“You’re going to have to win all the collisions I think to be able to dominate and go through and win a World Cup,” Hansen told Newstalk ZB’s D’Arcy Waldegrave. “Collisions are basically defensively when you’re making the tackle, but not only then but [also] when you’re carrying the ball. We’ve got to be able to create fast ball … we’ve got to start using our feet in collisions.

“It’s one of the things Ireland do very well. They win the collision when they carry and they get over the gain line. They are hard to come hard at because they have you going backwards all the time.

“If we can do that then I think we’re as good as any team in the world and if not as good probably better than most. We’re a dangerous side when we get going forward. For us to be successful we just have to win the collisions and obviously the set-piece has to be rock-solid as well.”

While admitting the All Blacks weren’t at their best last year, Hansen said “the ship started to right itself”.

“Because it was the first time that it ever happened and the first time in a long time we’d lost a series in New Zealand there was a lot of drama around it,” he said of the All Blacks’ home series defeat to Ireland. “But the fact of the matter was that Ireland at the time were better than us. But we’ve improved a lot since then. You look through the year and some changes were made to the All Blacks selection-wise and also coaching-wise.”

Hansen said he looks forward to the World Cup in France, which kicks off in September, where the All Blacks will be in unfamiliar territory.

“It will be the first time they go into a tournament for a while where they haven’t been the outright favourites. Both France and Ireland will be but neither of them have won one, so they will be under an enormous amount of pressure.

“It’s a tough draw they’ve got, but they aren’t the only ones with a tough draw. One of the top four teams in the world is going to get knocked out in the quarter-finals.

“France are playing at home and that will bring a lot of extra pressure to them. Ireland have got a bit of a monkey on their back and could start to be called chokers really because they haven’t gone past the quarter-finals in a World Cup and they are way better than that.

“Then you’ve got South Africa, England, New Zealand and even Australia ― if they get things right and don’t get too many injuries they’re going to be dangerous as well. It’s going to be a really good tournament.”