1987 Rugby World Cup winners too tired to party

Former All Black Sir Brian Lochore. Photo / APN

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 had a 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".