Rotation became something of a swear word in New Zealand in 2007 when Graham Henry chose to constantly rotate players in the team through the pool phases of the World Cup, leading to a lack of cohesion in the quarter-final defeat to France.
At the last World Cup, Henry stuck with a core of players and changed the side only out of necessity, a strategy that was vindicated when Richie McCaw lifted the Webb Ellis trophy last October.
Today, when Hansen named his first All Blacks side as head coach, the former assistant to Henry said he had been mindful of the toll a longer Super Rugby season was taking on some of his players.
Inside centre Sonny Bill Williams and blindside flanker Victor Vito were both named to start against Ireland, with Hansen saying the decisions had been partially made to give regular starter Ma'a Nonu and the versatile Adam Thomson a rest.
"It's just a chance for us to give him a breather," Hansen said when asked if Nonu had been dropped. "He's gone straight from the World Cup to Japan and has worked all the way through the Japanese season then came home.
"He was hoping to get a bit of a breather with the (Auckland) Blues but they're having the season they're having so he has had to jump straight back in there.
"We've also got a guy in the squad who's in outstanding form (Williams) and that allows us to say 'let's get you freshened up and get you ready for the next series'.
"Adam has (also) had huge workload down at the (Otago) Highlanders and their game is really, really physical, so there were signs of wear and tear there."
The fact Hansen and his fellow team selectors had players of the calibre of Vito and Williams was also a factor in the decision to give Nonu and Thomson a rest, the coach added.
"There's no doubt that Sonny is the in-form number 12 of Super Rugby so the sensible thing is to do what we're doing with Ma'a," Hansen added.
"The more depth, the better we can look after the players. The better we look after them, the fresher they will be, and the better high performance we will get.
"We're not talking about having huge rotation of teams. We just have to be smart enough to say 'we have this opportunity to do this for the athlete, let's take advantage of it and do what's right for him'.
"And in this case we have got the opportunity to do that without detriment to the team. So we are going to do that and that's the sensible, wise thing to do."
