WORLD Cup winning coach Steve Hansen has hailed his captain Richie McCaw as the best All Black ever to have played the game with Dan Carter a close second.

Since taking over from Graham Henry's team after the Kiwis' 2011 World Cup triumph, Hansen has lost just three out of 52 tests.

He would not be drawn on whether or not his team were the best to have ever played the game, but did open up about his talismanic captain.

"In terms of whether or not we're the greatest team of all time, that'll be for other people to decide," he said.

"But I can talk a bit more about the players and I think he is probably the greatest All Black we've ever had - meaning Richie - and Dan is a close second.

"The only thing that probably separates them is that one's a flanker and to play 148 test match is unheard of.

"You put your body on the line every time you play there.

"There was a lot of talk going into this about the loose forward trio and - without meaning to sound disrespectful to the other guys who I thought actually played really well - I thought our three won that battle.

"Richie was the leader of our trio.

"We're very fortunate to have players like that and the opportunity will come to someone else now to try and be better than him or better than Dan - both are great players."

New Zealand have played all over the country during the competition, and Hansen thought it suited his team.

Although the All Blacks play the majority of their home games at Eden Park in Auckland, they do not have a designated home ground like England do with Twickenham, and the squad relished the travelling.

"The big thing is we knew before we got here where we were going to be and what was going on so we sat down as a team and said, "Let's enjoy this"," Hansen said.

"So whilst we were coming here to win the thing, let's make sure if we win, lose or not is irrelevant.

"We wanted to leave this country with people understanding that we've got some good values, we're not bad people to be around and enjoy the experience.

"Too many athletes, I think, special occasions slip by and they don't get to enjoy it, so we relish the fact we moved around a lot.

"We thought it was a big advantage for us and we knew if we were lucky enought to get here and we'd done ourselves proud and been the people we are then maybe we'd have a few more friends.

"And I think that might've been the case.

"I think a lot of people have realised we're not the big, bad ogres that sometimes we're printed to be in the media.

"We're just ordinary people who happen to be able to play rugby reasonably well.

"Life is too short not to have fun, either.

"If you're serious all the time, it's pretty boring, and I can be called boring without being serious - so I've got to work on it.

"It's been great and the people who have looked after us in England and Wales have been superb from the hotel staff, the fans - they've been magnificent.

"And our own fans have travelled to see us, our fans back home have been great and really supportive and made us feel like we are loved.

"To be able to come here and finish the job on a successful note is also great because I can imagine things at home are really rocking and I reckon there will be a few people not turning up to work - which is no bad thing either."

Although Richie McCaw sprayed his head coach with praise in the post-match press conference, Hansen was not keen on taking the credit.

The 56-year-old said: "Firstly, it's not just me, it's everybody.

"It's not just one player or person, it's a 51 person effort and we're ably supported by the rugby union back home as well.

"They've been magnificent, the franchises have helped us, so we're all on the one page back home and I think that's made a big difference in us being able to come here and do what we wanted to do.

"It's massively satisfying.

"We set out four years ago to do something special and we had to put a full stop very quickly at the end of 2011 and start again in 2012.

"Then it was a matter of rebuilding the team so we could come here in 2015 with the right amount of experience but also the right amount of young players who had experience.

"The pleasing thing is we have a massive group of players who have played between 20 and 40 test matches who are in great shape to take this team forward once these other guys decide to move on and there's a few of them doing that and they couldn't have had a better finale."

It was telling that the first thing Steve Hansen did was acknowledge his opponents in the immediate aftermath of his team's 34-17 win at Twickenham.

He said: "Obviously it's extremely difficult when you get a winner and a loser, and for the loser it's a tough night.

But what I would like to say on behalf of myself and the team, I thought Australia were magnificent in the way they approached the game.

"They didn't lay down and at 21-3 you could be fooled into thinking the game was over but they came back and at 21-17 they could easily have won the game.

"So I think we'd like to acknowledge them for being the opponents they were and whilst we're very proud of what we've achieved, as a group we'd like to say well done to Australia as well."