Bill Sweeney, England Rugby Boss is keen to see his club win another World Cup to “shove it up Steve Hansen’s nose.”
Sweeney has a long memory, and one of them is an evening in Germany when Hansen informed him directly that England would never repeat their 2003 success in Australia under Sir Clive Woodward.
Sweeney worked for sportswear company Adidas, a long-time key sponsor of the All Blacks, during his commercial career.
“I would always deal with them and their favourite restaurant was a Japanese restaurant in the centre of town and I was there one night with the likes of Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu and Steve Hansen,” Sweeney recalled in a lengthy interview with Rugby Journal.
“At one point Steve stood up, raised his glass and made a toast, saying, ‘You are the only Englishman in here, and you won the World Cup in 2003, so fantastic, well done, but you will never win one again’.”
“He basically said we didn’t have the systems in place for sustained success, we’re just not set up to continually win. We had a great set of players in 2003, but that’s it, we’ll never win again. And that’s what really stuck with me,” Sweeney said of Hansen’s stinging remarks.
“I’d love to leave behind the best world-class, high-performance system in the world, one where we have always got a strong chance of winning a Grand Slam, and we are always going to be in the last four at the World Cup. And then I can shove it up Steve Hansen’s… nose one day.
Hansen’s All Blacks were humbled by England 19-7 in the semifinals.
But England couldn’t get up for the final, losing 32-12 to South Africa
