All Blacks heroes hail their greats..

For a team that has achieved rugby’s Everest, the All Blacks were quick to dampen any overt excitement after beating Australia 34-17 in the World Cup final.

As far as New Zeland captain Richie McCaw was concerned, the All Blacks came into the tournament as world champions and were expected to play like that.

He described his emotion at the end of Saturday’s final at Twickenham as “warm inside and proud of the men I’ve been in battle with”.

Accolades for the All Blacks flooded in as soon as the final whistle went, led by beaten Wallaby coach Michael Cheika.

“New Zealand won fair and square and have been the form team since the last World Cup,” Cheika said. The All Blacks had not only became the first side to win consecutive World Cups, they were also the first team to win the crown three times.

They have been the world’s top-ranked side since 2009 and British bookmakers cannot see that changing soon as they have already installed the New Zealanders as even-money favourites to win the 2019 tournament in Japan.

Steve Hansen made winning the World Cup a focus as soon as he took over as New Zealand head coach after their 2011 success.

But he said after the mission was completed, that win, lose or draw, what mattered most to him was that the team enjoyed themselves.

“I think there’s a lot of people have realised we are not big bad ogres that sometimes we are printed to be in the media,” he said.

“We are just ordinary people who can play rugby reasonably well. Life’s too short not to have fun. If you’re serious all the time it’s pretty boring.”

But Hansen was effusive about the contribution of his retiring stars led by Dan Carter, and possibly 34-year-old McCaw who is undecided about his future.

Test centurions Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock and Ma’a Nonu are also stepping away from internationals as is centre Conrad Smith, a veteran of 94 Tests.

McCaw “is the greatest All Black we’ve ever had, and Dan’s a close second,” Hansen said.

“The only thing that separates them is one’s a flanker (McCaw) and shouldn’t play 148 Test matches. As a flanker that’s unheard of.

“There was a lot of talk going into this game about the loose forward trio,” he said in reference to Wallabies David Pocock, Michael Hooper and Scott Fardy.

– Leader –

“Without wanting to be disrespectful to the other guys who I thought played really well, I thought our trio won that battle and Rico was the leader of our trio.”

McCaw, who has indicated retirement is close, is the world’s most capped player and most successful captain, leading his team to a near 90 percent win rate.

He said his major motivation was to ensure when he does leave he has added something to the number seven jersey.

“No person is bigger than what the team is and your job is to enhance and add something to that legacy,” he said.

“One thing I’ve always been big on is it’s not so much being a hero every week, it’s just doing your job as best you can to serve the team.”

McCaw also led the All Blacks to victory in the 2011 World Cup when they beat France 8-7 in Auckland. “It wa just a massive relief four years ago,” he said referring to the national expectation in rugby-obsessed New Zealand to end a 24-year wait for a second World Cup title to add to their triumph, again on home soil, at the inaugural 1987 edition. “This was an opportunity we really wanted to take,” McCaw explained