'You haven’t got room to get gaga emotional' - Hansen still refuses to acknowledge emotion of his last days with All Blacks

The end is now potentially days away after a 15-year association with the All Blacks, but Steve Hansen is still refusing to acknowledge any emotion about the fast approaching finish line.

Hansen said the emotion would get him to whenever the tournament ended, but in the meantime, it was not even on his mind.

“It’ll affect me when I finish because you haven’t got room to get gaga emotional,” he said.

“You’re here to do a job and the team is bigger than the individual, always has been, always will be.

“The jersey and the legacy of the jersey demands you to be there 100 per cent, giving 100 per cent of what you got, you haven’t got time to be thinking about yourself, you’ll be thinking about the job you got to do.

“When the tournament is over, whenever that is, you step back and I’ll have a reflection on what’s next, what’s life going to be like, etc etc, in the meantime it’s not even in your mind.”

The fact that it was his last tournament aside, Hansen said the emotional toll of a major tournament would certainly wear him down regardless of the result.

“You put a lot in, so there’s a lot of emotional energy used,” he said.

“You don’t really suffer with the emotional side until it’s all over, how it affects you is you get bone tired, win, lose or draw that happens so it’s got nothing to do with that.”