KEY POINTS:
The wives and girlfriends of today's All Blacks live a very different life on tour from those of yesteryear.
A large contingent of 'Wags' will accompany the ABs to France for next month's Rugby World Cup.
Among them will be Honor Dillon, the Black Sticks girlfriend of super-boot Dan Carter. She has been on several tours - both here and overseas - with the All Blacks, and says outside of training, media and sponsorship commitments, players can see their partners whenever they like.
Not so the likes of Verna Meads or Pam Lochore, who got left at home while their All Black great husbands Colin and Brian toured.
Dillon said these days the Wags were treated like royalty. While in New Zealand, lunches, drinks, beauty treatments, workshops, transport to and from games, pre- and post-match entertainment, even babysitters, were all provided.
There was no compulsion on the Wags to attend any of the organised activities, and time was often spent shopping or sightseeing, Dillon said.
Erstwhile All Black squeeze 25-year-old Casey Green is a veteran Wag. She said the NZRFU's relationship with the wives and girlfriends was "pretty relaxed" and everyone tended to do their "own thing".
Green, considered by some to be New Zealand's equivalent of football wife Victoria Beckham, jetted off to Europe last weekend independently, but will join the ABs in France, or "depending on whether he plays his cards right" one in particular - lock Ali Williams.
The pair have been an item on and off for some time. Green, a pole-dancing instructor, was part of an entourage that accompanied the team to Wales in 2005.
It was, despite the publicity that surrounds some of the more infamous Wags, hardly scandalous: "All I did in Wales was shop. There's not much else to do in Cardiff. It's awful," she said.
Hockey commitments meant Dillon would join Carter in Paris - the city of love - for the final week of the World Cup only.
But no, she said, she wouldn't be staying in the same hotel.
"I wouldn't want to... And it's nice for Dan to have a change of scenery and get out of the team environment for a while."
The wives of former All Blacks Colin Meads and Sir Brian Lochore say travelling with the team was "never ever" a consideration in their day. Wives stayed home to look after the children, and often the farm, Pam Lochore said. "I don't think it was even contemplated back then. It was a whole different scene, a completely different culture in those days."
Husband Brian captained the All Blacks from 1966 to 1970, playing his last game for the side a year later. His first overseas tour was for four-and-a-half months.
"But even going away for a few days would have meant a massive upheaval - organising relations to look after the farm and the kids. ... "
Communication was by letter - "There was almost never a phone call" - and problems at home were kept at home so as not to distract the men, she says. She has no problems with today's Wags going on tour.
Verna Meads, another farming wife, recalls "all hell" breaking loose when the wives of Don Clarke and Ross Brown accompanied them to Australia at one stage.
"They were going to create mayhem apparently, just because they were in the same country as the team." She says money was a big issue in the 60s and 70s, and the All Blacks were paid just 10 shillings, "drinking money" a day.
