Hansen and McCaw salute 'special' All Blacks after perfect year

New Zealand coach Steve Hansen and captain Richie McCaw saluted a 'special' All Blacks team after they completed a clean sweep of victories this year with a last-gasp win over Ireland on Sunday.

Hansen's team have set new standards since he took over from Graham Henry after the World Cup victory in 2011, losing just once before becoming the first team in the professional era to win all their test matches in a calendar year.

They had to dig deep, though, for their 14th and final win of the year when they came back from three first-half tries down to edge past Ireland 24-22 thanks to a stoppage-time converted try on a dramatic day in Dublin.

"Nineteen down...it wasn't the script, that's for sure," Hansen, who was full of praise for the opponents, told a news conference.

"I'm extremely proud of the 23 guys we had in our group today. To come from where we had to come from and claw our way across the line, it's a pretty special effort and it says why they are a special team.

"Everybody has a lot of faith in the group we had on the park and we just knew that if we could hold on to the ball for long enough, we were going to score (but) if they'd put a heart rate monitor on us, it would have been going through the roof."

New Zealand straddled their World Cup victory two years ago with 16 consecutive wins and have twice won 15 times in a row in the last decade but this year's run was the first so-called perfect year since the game turned professional in 1995.

They mostly flattened all before them in the southern hemisphere, and then the northern, but had a few close calls along the way too, showing, as Ireland coach Joe Schmidt noted during the week, they have resilience to match their class.

South Africa, seen as the closest challengers to All Black hegemony, scored four tries and twice took what looked like game-winning leads in the final game of the rugby championship yet New Zealand still wrapped up the title with a 38-27 win.

PARIS SCARE

Last week they had to survive a fightback from England, the last team to defeat them, who came back to within two points while there was a similar scare in Paris a week earlier before they emerged victorious over France.

Then there was Sunday when Ireland were on the verge of a first victory in 108 years of trying. Recalling a club game 12 years ago when former All Blacks lock Todd Blackadder fired up a young McCaw, the flanker said the key was never to give in.

"It comes down to belief. When I was a young player, I was in a provincial game and we were down by a similar 29 to very little. I thought the game was over and the captain said: 'Believe'. We got home and forever since then I've never, ever given up," McCaw, three-times World player of the year, said.

"I've always been proud of All Blacks teams, you never give up and never stop believing there's a chance. We had 15 guys out there still believing today right to the last minute and it's amazing what can happen."

While their starting XV against England had more than 800 caps between them, Hansen has also begun to rebuild the squad ahead of the 2015 World Cup, developing depth in key positions, changing almost half of the team for Sunday's clash.

McCaw, who has watched his side win eight of their last nine contests against the Springboks and go unbeaten in their last seven against Australia, was quick to acknowledge that the gruelling year was a collective effort.

"To be honest, at the minute it's just relief to have got across the line today but as the day goes on we'll reflect over what's been a pretty tough year, to have been able to win them all, I think there's a hell of a lot of pride," he said.

"We probably used 40-odd players over the year and a bunch of management worked extremely hard. It doesn't just happen on a Saturday and I think that's what we can all reflect on and give ourselves a pat on the back."

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