Steve Hansen

Sir Stephen William Hansen and High Chief of Vaiala, (born 7 May 1959) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player.

He is also the father of Black Ferns assistant coach, Whitney Hansen.

Hansen began his coaching career with the Canterbury provincial rugby union team from 1996 to 2001.

During his tenure the side won the National Provincial Championship in 1997 and 2001.

In 1999, 2000 and 2001, he was assistant coach to Wayne Smith and then Robbie Deans for the Canterbury Crusaders.

In 2002, Hansen was hired as the forwards coach for the Wales national team; however, following the resignation of head coach Graham Henry after a 54–10 loss to Ireland in the Six Nations in February 2002, Hansen was promoted to head coach for the remainder of the tournament.

In his first game in charge, Wales performed well but lost 37–33 to France.

A year later, Wales lost every match in the 2003 Six Nations Championship to win the Wooden Spoon for the first time since 1995, and went on to record a streak of 10 consecutive Test match defeats, broken by a defeat of rugby minnows Romania on 27 August 2003, though Hansen relinquished coaching duties for this game to Wales A coach Mike Ruddock.

Hansen resumed charge for another victory over Scotland ahead of the 2003 Rugby World Cup, at which a strong display against New Zealand and a spirited quarter-final loss against England restored some faith in his coaching.

After the World Cup, Hansen announced that he would be stepping down as Wales coach at the end of the 2004 Six Nations Championship.

In 2004, Hansen was appointed to the All Blacks as an assistant coach under Graham Henry.

Hansen was considered as a likely candidate to become the next Crusaders coach, starting in the 2009 Super 14 season, after Robbie Deans left to coach Australia, but the Crusaders coaching job went to former All Black Todd Blackadder.

Hansen assisted Graham Henry in coaching New Zealand to a win in the World Cup final against France, ending a 24-year World Cup drought for the All Blacks.

Hansen took over as head coach of the All Blacks when Graham Henry's contract expired at the end of 2011.

He was formally appointed on 15 December 2011.

For the first time since 2011, Australia beat the All Blacks 27–19.

He was the head coach of the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks, from 2012 to 2019, and won the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

In his first games as head coach, Hansen guided the All Blacks to a 3–0 series victory over Ireland during their 2012 tour, with the final game being a record 60–0 defeat for the Irish.

On 25 August, the All Blacks retained the Bledisloe Cup for a tenth consecutive year after their second match against Australia during the 2012 Rugby Championship.

His only defeat in 2012 came against England, a 38–21 loss on 1 December 2012.

He was named IRB Coach of the Year for 2012.

In the 2012 Queen's Birthday and Diamond Jubilee Honours, Hansen was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to rugby.

The All Blacks retained the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup, and won 14 of 14 matches, becoming the first team to ever do this in the professional era.

The team finished the year by winning 24–22 against Ireland.

Hansen was named IRB coach of the year for the second year running.

In 2014, having already defeated England 3–0 on their tour, New Zealand lost their first ever Rugby Championship match.

On 4 October, they lost to South Africa 27–25 in Johannesburg, while they had also drawn their opening match of the Championship with Australia 12–all.

Despite this, they retained their title for a third consecutive year.

On 1 November 2014, Hansen led the All Blacks to a 74–6 win over the United States in Chicago.

Hansen later led the team to a further three victories on their European tour, and was named World Rugby coach of the year.

Hansen took the All Blacks to Samoa for the first ever official test match between the two teams in Samoa, where the All Blacks won the match 25–16.

In a shortened Rugby Championship, the All Blacks failed to retain the title they held for three years.

Having beaten Argentina 39–18 and South Africa 27–20, a final match against Australia would see either New Zealand or Australia claim the Championship.

During the 2015 Rugby World Cup, despite some error-ridden games in the Pool stage, Hansen led the All Blacks to the top of Pool C with victories over Argentina, 26–16, Namibia 58–14, Georgia 43–10 and Tonga 47–9, before beating France in the quarter-final 62–13 and South Africa 20–18 in the semi-final.

He stepped down at the end of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.

Hansen is also part owner of 2021 Everest winning horse Nature Strip.

Hansen was born in Mosgiel, to Desmond and Lauriss Hansen, who were dairy farmers on the Taieri Plain.

He was educated at Outram Primary School, The Taieri High School, and Christchurch Boys' High School.

Hansen also spent six years in the New Zealand Police, working at the Hornby Police Station where he met his first wife.

A rugby union centre, he represented Canterbury at first-class level on 21 occasions.