[1] Steve Hansen Steve Hansen has made no secret of his desire to be All Blacks' head coach but he's not letting it get in the way of the primary goal this week, winning the World Cup.
Graham Henry is widely expected to step down after the tournament - he's said he's not planning to reapply - and backs' coach Wayne Smith is joining the Chiefs, opening the way for Hansen to take over.
Two of his main rivals, Robbie Deans and Warren Gatland, are already out of the equation having re-committed to Australia and Ireland respectively and other potential candidates like Todd Blackadder, Jamie Joseph and Pat Lam aren't seen as ready.
Hansen, who is expected to install former Chiefs' coach Ian Foster and Japan forwards' coach Mick Byrne as his assistants if he is successful, today sidestepped talk of him stepping up to the top job next year.
"It's not even something I'm thinking about at the moment,'' he said. "Four years ago we got knocked out in the quarter-final of a World Cup and three coaches made a decision to try and re-get the job and we did that.
"We were lucky enough to be reappointed and last weekend we earned the right to turn up on Sunday at 9 o'clock to try to win the thing.
"At the moment, that's the only thing I'm thinking about. I don't really care what happens after Sunday night. All I'm focusing on is trying to get a team ready to turn up to win. We'll worry about things like that afterwards.
"Yeah, you have long-term goals, but you also have narrow short-term ones and right now the short-term ones are the primary focus.
"We're really excited and there's no room for anything else at the moment. There's just a total focus on trying to get our team to play really, really well because we know we're going to have to because the French are going to turn up and play well to try and win this thing.
"Not too many times in your life do you get the opportunity for something special to happen. You're not only doing it for yourself, you're doing it for all the people who have made sacrifices and for our country. So you've just got to make sure you get it right.''
Hansen doesn't come across as someone who worries too much about anything peripheral and he admitted he's never been particularly bothered about employment.
He started as a rugby coach in Canterbury and led the province to NPC titles in 1997 and 2001. He was also Crusaders' assistant in 1999-2001 when they won two Super Rugby titles and he took over from Henry as Wales' coach in 2002. Hansen returned to New Zealand in 2004 to be All Blacks' forwards' coach, a position he's held since, and even applied for the Crusaders' top job for 2009 but it was seen as a conflict of interest with his All Blacks' commitments - Todd Blackadder took over instead.
"I have never been one to worry about my job, whether it was a policeman, freezing worker or rugby coach,'' he said. "I have the philosophy that something will turn up. Just make your decisions based on what needed to be done at that time.''
Regardless of Hansen's apparent indifference he wants to drop the assistant title next to his name, and a win on Sunday night will help his case immeasurably.
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