"He's got a very good relationship with the players,'' Henry said. "They enjoy him and enjoy his coaching. He's got a good feel for the game, an understanding for the game and it's a natural feel. He wants to win, which is very important.
"I think there needs to be continuity. I think you learn a lot by being in this position and if you had a complete change of the coaching team you lose that continuity, you lose what has been learned before and you have to start from scratch again so I think Steve Hansen should do the job, that's my personal opinion.
"I think he'll do it well. He can't have more experience can he?''
Henry anointed Hansen as his successor today when officially announcing his retirement as All Black head coach after eight years and 103 tests in charge of the national team.
NZRU chief executive Steve Tew paid credit to Henry's record as coach and also the culture he had instilled within the team.
"We will miss Graham in this environment,'' Tew said. "We've now got a process to run to appoint a replacement for him. It will be a very difficult job to find someone to fill these shoes but we will.''
Applications for the role close on November 25 and interviews begin on December 12. Tew hopes to be able to name a successor before Christmas but all indications point towards Hansen making the step up, with former Chiefs coach Ian Foster named as his assistant.
Henry talked of Hansen having a good relationship with his players, but it became clear in his announcement today that he also enjoyed being around the team and will miss the interaction.
His comments about captain Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, who had his World Cup cut short by injury, were especially revealing. McCaw was also hit by injury - the stress fracture to his right foot - but he battled through the pain all tournament.
"Richie McCaw has been quite phenomenal. I went fishing with him on Friday - he's not a bad fisherman, but one foot is twice as big as the other. [That's an] exaggeration [but] I looked at his foot and I said `hell Rich, that foot is swollen, really swollen. `Yeah Ted it is' [McCaw replied].
"He gritted his teeth and got through it. His ability to lead and be inspirational to that group of people was immense. And because he couldn't train he even got finer on the detail. Outstanding, superb.''
As for Carter: "He's 28, in the prime of his rugby career, on the biggest stage of the world at home and he lived for that for four years and it was all taken away. It was a hell of a sad situation. He sucked that up, got on with it, talked to Aaron [Cruden] and Stephen [Donald] quietly and in his assured way. He came to leadership meetings and added his expertise.
"He's a very special young man. It makes me emotional just talking about it.''
- Patrick McKendry
