NZ coach Hansen salute team after perfect year

DUBLIN. New Zealand coach Steve Hansen and captain Richie McCaw saluted a ‘special’ All Blacks team after they completed a clean sweep of victories this year with a last-gasp win over Ireland on Sunday.Hansen’s team have set new standards since he took over from Graham Henry after the World Cup victory in 2011, losing just once before becoming the first team in the professional era to win all their test matches in a calendar year.They had to dig deep, though, for their 14th and final win of the year when they came back from three first-half tries down to edge past Ireland 24-22 thanks to a stoppage-time converted try on a dramatic day in Dublin.“Nineteen down...it wasn’t the script, that’s for sure,” Hansen, who was full of praise for the opponents, told a news conference.“I’m extremely proud of the 23 guys we had in our group today. To come from where we had to come from and claw our way across the line, it’s a pretty special effort and it says why they are a special team.New Zealand straddled their World Cup victory two years ago with 16 consecutive wins and have twice won 15 times in a row in the last decade but this year’s run was the first so-called perfect year since the game turned professional in 1995.They mostly flattened all before them in the southern hemisphere, and then the northern, but had a few close calls along the way too, showing, as Ireland coach Joe Schmidt noted during the week, they have resilience to match their class.South Africa, seen as the closest challengers to All Black hegemony, scored four tries and twice took what looked like game-winning leads in the final game of the rugby championship yet New Zealand still wrapped up the title with a 38-27 win.

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NZ coach Hansen salute team after perfect year