Had they known that successive All Black Rugby World Cup campaigns would end in failure, the 1987 side might have partied a bit harder.
But the only All Black coach to have won the RWC, Sir Brian Lochore, said all his team wanted to do was sleep.
"We probably hada few beers and that but everyone was so tired and we certainly didn't have a party that evening," said Sir Brian at the unveiling of a Michael Jones statue at Eden Park yesterday.
"They didn't realise it that night, but mentally and physically it was tough ... they'd played six test matches in a month - which had never been done before."
After going back to their day jobs and beating the Wallabies 30-16 three weeks later, the team celebrated at the Regent Hotel in Auckland with Governor-General Sir Paul Reeves and Lady Reeves.
For the first time in 24 years, the players and management - with the exception of one - will regroup on October 11 for what may be their last get-together.
A black-tie dinner for 750 people at the Ellerslie racecourse in Auckland will also act as a fundraiser for a scholarship in memory of the late All Black prop John Drake.
Drake died suddenly in December 2008. The scholarship is awarded annually to an outstanding school-leaver enrolling at the University of Auckland.
A former selector and RWC 1995 campaign manager, Sir Brian was "pretty comfortable" with the All Black squad.
"The bit I'm impressed about is that for a few players, this will be their third World Cup and they're boosted by what I think are some very, very promising young guys who have had a bit of All Black experience.
"You always live in hope, I guess," he said but "you need to have the experience, to have the right people in the right places".
