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Sydney - All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen was hard at work in Sydney on Tuesday when he got the call from an engineer, his home in Christchurch was a write-off following the weekend's earthquake.
''My place has big cracks in it, six to seven feet wide and four to five feet deep,'' Hansen said. ''You can't imagine how strong something like that can be to shift what it shifted and do what it has done.''
The All Blacks will try to channel their ongoing concerns for friends and family affected by the Christchurch earthquake into a motivating force to beat the Wallabies. Hansen, who arrived on Monday - a day after the players - hopes a victory can lift shattered spirits back home.
Hansen said that the team was unsettled by hearing of aftershocks.
''The hardest part is when you know there is more - there were two big earthquakes, one was 5.6 [on the Richter scale] something,'' he said.
''That frightens you a little because you are not with the people you love and care about and you are over here pretty helpless. I guess you can feel guilty about that, but you can just keep in touch with your family. That is what most of the guys are doing. You also realise you have a job to do for the All Blacks and New Zealand. Hopefully if we put a good performance in we can put smiles back on a few faces.''
Asked about the prospect of him not joining the All Blacks, Hansen said: ''Of course, I considered it. I came a day later anyway. Until you are actually in it you probably don't appreciate the amount of damage and trauma that a lot of people have gone through. And the place has really been wiped out.''
After deciding to join the All Blacks, Hansen said he was told: ''If you are coming over here you had better do a bloody good job to make the time away from people you love worthwhile.
''I sort of agree with that. If we are coming here we need to make sure that we do a good job, otherwise we should have stayed at home. I guess it puts an extra edge on the Test.''
''My place has big cracks in it, six to seven feet wide and four to five feet deep,'' Hansen said. ''You can't imagine how strong something like that can be to shift what it shifted and do what it has done.''
The All Blacks will try to channel their ongoing concerns for friends and family affected by the Christchurch earthquake into a motivating force to beat the Wallabies. Hansen, who arrived on Monday - a day after the players - hopes a victory can lift shattered spirits back home.
Hansen said that the team was unsettled by hearing of aftershocks.
''The hardest part is when you know there is more - there were two big earthquakes, one was 5.6 [on the Richter scale] something,'' he said.
''That frightens you a little because you are not with the people you love and care about and you are over here pretty helpless. I guess you can feel guilty about that, but you can just keep in touch with your family. That is what most of the guys are doing. You also realise you have a job to do for the All Blacks and New Zealand. Hopefully if we put a good performance in we can put smiles back on a few faces.''
Asked about the prospect of him not joining the All Blacks, Hansen said: ''Of course, I considered it. I came a day later anyway. Until you are actually in it you probably don't appreciate the amount of damage and trauma that a lot of people have gone through. And the place has really been wiped out.''
After deciding to join the All Blacks, Hansen said he was told: ''If you are coming over here you had better do a bloody good job to make the time away from people you love worthwhile.
''I sort of agree with that. If we are coming here we need to make sure that we do a good job, otherwise we should have stayed at home. I guess it puts an extra edge on the Test.''
