Steve Hansen has produced some brilliant one-liners at press conferences throughout his time as All Blacks coach, but he may have saved his best for last after last night's Rugby World Cup win over Wales - despite Kieran Read's best attempts to stop him.
The departing coach was talking about how he, management and the senior leadership group spent the week looked after the squad after the dissapointment of last week's semi-final loss to England when he started to go off on a bit of a tangent.
"This whole week has been about making sure we create an environment as a coaching and managing group that these men who are hurting incredibly from knowing that they haven't achieved their goal, can get up and play well tonight," Hansen started.
"We'll deal with what we need to deal with over the next couple of days and find a nice quiet place at home, sit down, have a few drinks with (wife) Tash and we will have a few laughs," Hansen said.
"And salute a few times, and probably get drunk …"
As Hansen went to continue, Read stepped in with a cheeky but firm, "stop there, Steve".
The interjection got both Hansen and media laughing but the coach shrugged off his advice, ripping out a quality line in response to the skipper.
"Kieran is only 30-odd, and I am 60," Hansen added.
"So what he's thinking about doesn't happen that often these days.
"Or not as much as I would like anyway."
Hansen took a sip from his water bottle with a big grin on his face as media continued to laugh at his words, proving after a rough week laughter is a pretty good medicine.
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