Hansen thrilled with All Blacks' response to adversity
Steve Hansen does not believe the loss to Ireland benefited New Zealand, but was pleased with the response as that setback was avenged.
New Zealand coach Steve Hansen lauded how his side responded to adversity as the All Blacks avenged their defeat to Ireland two weeks ago with victory in Dublin on Saturday.
The All Blacks saw their record-breaking streak of 18 consecutive wins broken by Ireland in Chicago a fortnight ago with a 40-29 defeat at Soldier Field.
That marked Ireland's first win over New Zealand, but Joe Schmidt's men were brought back down to earth at the Aviva Stadium this weekend with a 21-9 loss.
The triumph for New Zealand came after they hammered Italy 68-10 last week in Rome.
And, asked if the loss in the United States had in fact been to New Zealand's benefit, Hansen told Sky Sports: "I don't think it's to anyone's benefit to lose, but eventually everyone does and when you do you get a jolt.
"A lot of these boys haven't tasted that before and the adversity and you want to see how the respond to it, and I'm happy they did.
"It wasn't pretty, but sometimes when you have to win they got the job done. Three tries to one and I think in the end we'll go away and give ourselves a tick and learn some more."
Hansen still sees room for improvement for his team ahead of next week's clash with France, with New Zealand having conceded 14 penalties.
"We did our best, but obviously the character came through. When we look at the tapes I'm sure some of those are avoidable," Hansen said of the penalties.
"Some of them are down to the interpretation of the ref and you want him to be consistent too."