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It was a special moment, one Jerome Kaino had been seeking since his All Black career began when he was taken as a young project to Europe five years ago.
As the All Blacks sat exhausted but elated in their Brisbane changing shed several months ago after defending the Bledisloe Cup, captain Richie McCaw moved over to have a quiet word with his blindside flanker. The exact words will remain a secret between the pair but the gist of their conversation was straightforward.
It was an acknowledgment that Kaino had made the advances the staff wanted, that he was a serious All Black, not a bit-part traveller.
"He just told me how he liked what I had done in some of the defensive parts of that test, and for me, for a person like Richie to come up and say those things, that gave me a lot of confidence," Kaino said.
"He gave me cues during the game but it was afterwards when we spoke that it really meant the most."
While Kaino slept contented that night after his approval rating from the master, he has been determined to push even further on this end-of-year expedition.
"Making the team is not good enough now, it is all about showing improvement all the time and we get checked over for all sorts of things every week," Kaino said.
Kaino with Luke McAlister, Casey Laulala, Conrad Smith, Jimmy Cowan, Piri Weepu, Stephen Bates and Saimone Taumoepeau were the new bloods on that 2004 tour and, of that group, Kaino and McAlister were earmarked as the next surging superstars.
McAlister has been there, done that, gone to earn his bread for whatever reasons in the UK after 22 tests.
Kaino is about to earn his 15th cap tomorrow in Cardiff when the All Blacks meet Wales in the third leg of what they hope will be a repeat Grand Slam tour.
The 25-year-old has always been an athlete, good enough to play at centre and wing at St Kentigern College before he transferred his talents to the loose forward brigade. He has been a regular age-group rep and was the international player of the year at the under-21 level.
Those advances were rapid. The tough haul has come in the last few years as injury and greater competition have bitten into his progress. This year he has added 11 caps to his previous three, starting at No 8 before switching to the blindside role.
"Throughout the Super 14 and Tri-Nations, although I thought I played well, being in the All Blacks environment makes you sit down and focus on the detail a lot more," Kaino said.
"I had a lot of confidence in myself playing out wide but one of the big issues I had with my game was in the tight, in the physical area of the game. It was learning how to adapt to different styles in a split second. I was not used to that change at international level," Kaino admitted.
When he sat down and looked at his game with the All Black staff, they encouraged him to watch McCaw and Rodney So'oialo's performances and dovetail his work in around them. He had learned and adapted a great deal from their games.
"Richie is all about work," said an admiring Kaino. "He doubles up on everything. Say if he makes a tackle he will go to the next ruck and make another or sometimes triples up. It is all about how many touches you get in a game or how many involvements you have at rucks.
"Rodney is really similar. I want to try and emulate how they go about their business because in a trio, it is no good having two people working and the other not quite in sync. I have been working hard to increase my workrate, it is not about just working too, it is about being effective."
At test level, everything was much more defined and clinical, forwards needed to do much more of the core work than they could get away with in the Super 14 series.
"I am not saying I am there yet, I have a lot of room for improvement but it is coming," said Kaino. "Sitting down with some of the other boys they say some guys feel comfortable straight away when they get picked and others take their time.
"In my case I have been dropped from the All Blacks twice and I had to take this opportunity this year."
