Saying Sayonara
Everyone who has ever coached an international team presumably has a vision that they will ride off into the sunset with the World Cup clutched under their arm and the masses waving them a heroic goodbye.
It's the perfect way to end an international coaching tenure.
A World Cup victory leaves a sense of everything being right.
A World Cup title can add an incredible glow to any coaching reign no matter what happened in the preceding years.
Not that Graham Henry needed a fairytale ending as such but when he got his in 2011, the final act of an eight-year stint that was mostly good but with one memorably bad period, he was offered a knighthood and a place in the national psyche as a favourite old uncle.
Steve Hansen wanted the same ending to his eight-years in charge of the All Blacks. He didn't need it to preserve a treasured place in history. He already had that locked down.
He took over as head coach of the All Blacks in 2012 after eight years as an assistant and with everyone predicting it would all end horribly for him, he took the team to greater heights.
In his first year, they only lost one test – and that was at the end of a long, long season. In 2013 they didn't lose a single game and then he coached the All Blacks to a World Cup victory in 2015, before they set a record of 18 consecutive victories in 2016.
His win record was incredible. The All Blacks won 89 per cent of their tests with
