New Zealand coach Steve Hansen has signed a new long-term contract with the All Blacks.

The 53-year-old, who succeeded Graham Henry in 2011, has admitted that he will readdress the balance in the squad ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

"It's well publicised we have an aging leadership group and there are a lot of people in the group who want to be in the World Cup squad and some of them aren't going to make it," Hansen told reporters at a press conference.

"We have to get our balance right in the next two or three years so that if they don't make it we have the right people in place to take their place and produce the rugby performance we are after. We need to be really bold.

"It would be too easy to go with some of the older guys, but we have to look to the future at some of the younger guys. People who may not have necessarily played 50 or 60 tests. It could be someone who has played four or five, or under 20 but by the time they get to the World Cup that's what they would have played."

Hansen has previously coached Wales.