All Blacks assistant coach's mercy dash after quake

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MERCY DASH: All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen.

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All Blacks assistant coach Steve Hansen has opened up for the first time today about the personal cost of last weekend's devastating earthquake and the mercy dash he made in the middle of the night to be by his family's side.

Hansen was a day late joining the All Blacks in Sydney this week and admits he pondered missing the test altogether as he was forced to deal with a family home left in tatters by the massive quake that struck the Canterbury region in the early hours of last Saturday.

"Our house probably reflects Christchurch -- it's knackered," he said after the All Blacks made an appearance at a World Cup promotion in the Rocks area. "There's a lot of devastation and some houses have got away with very minor damage, but there are lot of properties that are going to have to be condemned and rebuilt.

"They're talking taking 12-18 months to get things right. When you see the footage there a lot of people have suffered a lot of heartache."

Hansen's family home, on the southern outskirts of Christchurch, comes into the needing to be rebuilt category and even as he was chatting with members of the media today calls were coming in updating him on latest damage estimates.

"It's difficult at times, and in the down times your mind wanders back to home for sure," said Hansen of a week that's proving challenging for him more than the other Cantabs among the All Blacks management and team. "But you know you're over here and if you're going to be over here you need to do a good job because otherwise you should have stayed home."

Hansen also revealed he had to make a risky 15-minute drive to be with his family (wife Jill and sons Jonty and Ollie) after the quake struck in the middle of the night.

"I wasn't at our house at that time," he said. "Dad lives with us and he was there and Jill and the boys were there. I arrived about 15 minutes after it. It was nice to see everyone was OK."

Hansen said he had been at his brother's house when the quake struck. "Once it stopped rumbling I said 'are you OK?' He said 'yeah'. I said 'I'll see you later' and jumped in the car."

The burly coach said he never even considered he was putting himself at risk by driving so soon after such a major tremor.

"You don't think about that do you? You think about the people you need to make sure are all right so you just go and do it."

Hansen paid tribute to his bosses at the NZRU who had offered him the chance to stay home this week if he judged it necessary.

"But you take on this job knowing sometimes you've got to make tough decisions, and I've got great support at home, and family and friends have been just great.

"Even yesterday a great mate of mine turned up with a generator for the freezer because we haven't had power for five days. I was over here and just had to make a phone call and he turned up -- you appreciate that sort of stuff."

In fact Hansen firmly believed that out of the carnage caused by the quake would come some real positives in terms of the Canterbury region and its people.

"It will bring everyone closer -- families will get tighter, friends rally round and they become tighter out of it, then mini communities and greater communities. Even fellow New Zealanders - there has been huge support from outside the province.

"All the volunteers have been superb. A massive thank-you to those people because they've done a great job for a lot of people who are on their own or didn't know what to do.

"When you walk out and see all this carnage you can think 'what do I do next?'. Particularly for older people it's quite frightening.

"I'm sure out of the adversity we'll grow as a province and grow as a country."

All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw said it had not yet been discussed how the team might play its part in the relief effort, but it would be addressed as soon as this week's commitments were out of the way.

"Those of us from there will go back and suss out what we need to do," said McCaw. "We've got a few guys who have got their own houses to sort out, but once we've done that we'll figure out what needs to be done and I'm sure with a couple of weeks off we'll get that done.

"With everyone being safe it's made it easier to get on with things, and I guess we'll go home next week and see for ourselves what going on."

McCaw confirmed his parents house had suffered some internal damage and he said his sister had reported that his own place was "still standing" without any obvious issues.

McCaw had been in Auckland when the quake struck and had found it a bit surreal hearing about the experience second-hand.

"I know just talking to my folks and from the guys who were there it must have been pretty scary for a bit. But as long as everyone is OK everything can be fixed," added the All Blacks captain.

Expect him to show the same leadership that dignifies him as one of New Zealand's rugby greats when he returns to his shattered province.

- © Fairfax NZ News