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    Building The Greatest Sports Team In History: All Blacks' Steve Hansen
    World Cup 2026

    Building The Greatest Sports Team In History: All Blacks’ Steve Hansen



    Sir Steve Hansen famously led the All Blacks to victory during the 2015 Rugby World Cup as their head coach, a role he held from 2012 to 2019. This is a reflective, honest and vulnerable conversation with one of the world’s best coaches. Steve offers insights into his time with the All Blacks, sharing his experiences coaching the greatest rugby team in history, and the task of redefining the concept of progress while sitting at the top of the world rankings.

    Jake, Damian and Steve delve into the strategic mindset he brings to coaching, sharing five thought-provoking questions he constantly asks himself and his team. They discuss his competitive and pride-driver alter-ego, Stanley, and how he has learnt to control this side of himself, offering valuable insights into the complexities of leadership. By prioritising simplicity, trust, and self-awareness, Steve explores how we can create a blueprint for high performance in any endeavour.;;

    This episode was recorded at the Rugby Premiership Final at Twickenham, there may be some crowd noise in the background.

    0:00 Trailer
    0:19 Start
    9:30 Player care
    17:37 Pressure
    23:56 Generation Z
    28:53 Steve’s Alter Ego
    35:03 Judging success
    39:23 Hating rules
    43:13 Dealing with toxicity
    47:07 Steve’s sadness

    Listen on your Podcast player: http://www.podfollow.com/highperformance

    View 43 Comments

    43 Comments

    3. Edward SR on

      He’s a great man, and he’s a funny guy. But to be honest with you Mcaw and Dc set the standards in that team from 2007 onwards after the French loss in n the World Cup.. my grandma could have coached the team in this period and the results would be the same. Mcaw is the absolute Goat and the players that bought into it.
      Could you imagine Ritchie saying to Steve , I have a sore back I pulled a muscle at the captains run on the eve of one of the biggest games of your life??
      That’s the culture at the Abs now compared to back then. McCaw played a World Cup final on a broken foot, because he pretty much told them he was alright.
      Now that’s a guy you wanna go to war with, you don’t need a coach , that man is the coach , godfather, mentor , ect ect ect. As soon as those players left it was all downhill. Hansen bailed out as the wheels were falling off. Foster inherited a team on its way down and on top of that he has no answers to the problems.

    5. Bruce Stening on

      Outstanding interview, on many levels. As a lifelong All Blacks supporter, despite having lived abroad for half a century, I was deeply interested in what made the ABs so successful, especially under Steve Hansen’s leadership. As a PhD in behavioural science and a professor whose mission is the personal development of those with whom I work (I won’t describe them as students since, as Steve pointed out, we are all students in this process), I learned a lot. Not only a great coach, but a first-class human being.

    9. thisarfingai on

      Gentlemen, that was the best interview I have ever watched. Your line of questioning and your approach was absolutely spot-on. Hansen is a tough cookie, I have watched and read a lot of his interviews, none have been as enthralling as this. BRAVO.

    23. J Johan on

      His goal was to be "the greatest sports team in history". The way he said that in such a matter of fact way makes you think "yeah fair enough, seems realistic".

    24. Dave Collins on

      2015 All Blacks were the greatest team ever assembled on a rugby field and coached by the greatest coach of all time in my opinion. A pleasure to watch them play. Great interview!

    26. Favour Charis on

      Steve Hansen should have retired before 2019. He stayed too long, and was unable to foresee the threat England posed at the Japan WC. It was such a predictable result which stained his great legacy.

    33. Poerava on

      Steve out here trying to sound like a psychologist and neuroscientist. lol.

      His style of engaging with players, was reflected in his comments about how his real buzz was in helping an athlete accomplish their goals, while knowing that if it wasn’t for him, they couldn’t accomplish it. That’s a terrible underpinning of coaching philosophy. This strategy reinforces the toxic culture of players not wanting to question the coach or give opposing ideas.

      A more healthy and effective approach would be to seek to instil a sense in a player that they can accomplish their goals with or without the coach.

      All blacks coaches that are on winning sides, get crowned as gods. All blacks coaches that are on losing sides get cast into hell. All while forgetting that good players make a good team. Many a winning have played with average coaches. I feel Hansen is one of those coaches.

      There is a toxic culture in NZ with players never talking back to coaches. Ever.
      Steve would do well to acknowledge that he had some of the best rugby players who ever played the game and he also had some of the best selectors, management and support team. A lot of players really didn’t like Steve.

      Gilbert Enoka probably deserves more credit for the all blacks success, than Steve.

      Half of these things Steve is saying, was developed by Gilbert.

    34. Theofilus Bouwer on

      Yeah we woz best team In history to find its equivalent you have to look to Lance Armstrong tour de France record plus Richie Mecaw knew how to cheat without getting caught 😂

    39. Morgan Donnelly on

      The greatest sports team in history is the Man Utd team of the Ferguson era, the Chicago bulls of the Jordan era or the Spanish nation football team that won back to back European cup and World Cup. The all blacks compete in a very shallow pool of competitive teams internationally in a sport played seriously by barely a handful of countries. If that.
      The all blacks together with the springboks are the best rugby teams, conflating that with best team across all sports including genuine global sports is a bit ridiculous.

    40. Gurudial Singh on

      Steve you ve been A Master beyond anyone's guess . Things u ve done no doubt shows that great passion you had for ABs . Was a bit disappointed with the loss in semis in RWC 2019 .. The Spirit for the Kiwis was that AB s were the Team of the Tournament . It's widely spoken that t2 factors downed ABs . .First was that ABs as a Team didn't have a plan B riding rough high waves against England . Second was may b the restructuring in the Team may have contributed greatly in the result . Shud AB s have won that n truly so they deserved to win your image wud have rippled ten fold specially when you were departing . History wudve been carved . Doesn't matter you've done well . God bless .

    43. Mier y Pesado on

      Appreciated more than anything the intense vulnerability it took to share the concept of 'Stanley' – the easily enraged alter-ego that I think a lot of us men have, and hate ourselves for.

      Ultimately it comes from some trauma, flooding our bodies with adrenaline and putting us into fight or flight; useful sometimes, but often times destructive to those we love most

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