Rugby: Anxiety lifts as team finds its smile

Apart from Slade’s knee niggle, All Black squad’s first training session shows big improvement in quality, writes Patrick McKendry

Colin Slade sent New Zealand's anxiety levels rising with a minor knee problem but for him and the rest of the All Blacks, yesterday's first training session of the World Cup squad was notable for an improvement in focus and quality.

First five Slade's niggle is not serious, but his slip and knee tweak at the Hutt Recreation Ground was enough to rekindle memories of Dan Carter's groin injury in the same city four years ago during the last World Cup which shocked the nation and ruled him out of the game for some time.

Another to raise a question mark was Sonny Bill Williams, an absentee due only to a cold, but the other 30 players who trained, including Slade before his departure, did without the burden of nervousness and expectation which had plagued them before Sunday's squad announcement.

"It was a very different feel," assistant coach Ian Foster said.

"The whole thing lifted up quite a few per cent. The intensity levels lifted, the focus was there. It's not like it wasn't there beforehand but certainly the mission now is very clear. Everyone knows that they're on the bus, they've got a role to do and now the heads seem to be very clear today and it was a very pleasing start."

On the day after a visit to the Ngati Toa marae for a reconnection with the Ka Mate haka, which has its roots with the iwi, the All Blacks are in full World Cup mode.

The excitement within the squad is lifting, and that's fine by Foster and the rest of the coaches.

"I don't think you want to keep a lid on the excitement," Foster said.

"The challenge is very much there in our face. We're jumping on the plane soon, we've only got a limited number of training sessions, so for us it's about using every opportunity we can. I don't think we want to dampen the excitement but clearly we have to make sure it doesn't become an emotional hit and we lose the clear-headed thinking we need."

The way social media lit up about Slade's injury is an indication of the suspense building in New Zealand ahead of the nation's World Cup defence and it's likely to continue until the All Blacks get on the plane for London on Thursday next week.

And once they set foot on English soil it will ramp up a notch ahead of the team's first match against Argentina at Wembley on September 21 (NZT).

The team may feel they are about to set foot on a rollercoaster, but it will be ridden all the way by their supporters, that much is clear.

Loose forward Liam Messam was on light training duties with wing Waisake Naholo, who continues his recovery from a fractured leg, and Foster had to dip into his considerable well of patience to defuse further injury rumours.

"Everyone seems to be panicking every time someone doesn't train. One guy had a cold, one guy is [getting] over a [broken] leg and another guy ... has been eased out of a session so Liam, we just follow the medical advice, he was on a light training day."

Of midfielder Williams, Foster said: "He woke up with a cold and we kept him in his room and, no, we won't be replacing him."

The All Blacks are in World Cup mode and so is the nation.