Comfortable win over Ireland did New Zealand no favours, says Hansen

Steve Hansen has said a "perfect storm" led to New Zealand's Rugby World Cup collapse against England.

The 19-7 defeat flattered the All Blacks with their head coach left to reflect on the stinging nature of the loss.

"It's still one of those things that bugs you, it still hurts and will do for the rest of time," he told All Blacks TV.

"Why did we lose the World Cup? Well, we lost to England, and why did we lose to England? I've reflected on that quite a lot."

He says the 46-14 thrashing of Ireland in the quarter-final didn't do New Zealand any favours, with the comprehensive nature of the result causing complacency to sink into the group.

"What we were trying to do has never been done before, and with success comes a little less desperation.

"It was a perfect storm really, we played South Africa first up, got that job done, had lesser opponents after that so that mental side of the game didn't come into it.

"We had a massive week into Ireland, and that was a game that had everyone on the end of their seat.

"When we won that and won it so comfortably, subconsciously I think all of us may have relaxed a little bit. Let go of two percent of that desperation we had. It's not something that you do deliberately, it just happens.

"Then we played England who have been waiting for two and a half years to play this one game. Very, very desperate, right up at 100 percent, and if we are at 92 percent, that's a big shift. They came at us and played well and deserved to win.

"I looked at myself, and the messages during the week and maybe they weren't on the money the way they could have been from a mental point of view, knowing that we have just come off a big win against Ireland."

Hansen also offered some advice to his successor as New Zealand boss.

"Leadership is about influencing through relationship. It's not about how much IQ you've got, it's about how much EQ [emotional quotient] you've got.

"Understanding the environment you're in is going to be important, building relationships within that. Getting your team around you right, also really important, and what roles you want them to do."