That the All Blacks are constantly searching for ways to improve won't raise a single eyebrow of those with even a cursory knowledge of their record, but some of the team's methods might.
From the Royal New Zealand Ballet to cage fighting in Australia, two worlds which could hardly be further apart, All Blacks forwards coach Mike Cron has seen it all already this year in the name of self improvement ahead of the British and Irish Lions tour which starts next week.
Ballet, he said, can be helpful in terms of the lifting techniques of the dancers, while mixed martial arts, or cage fighting, can give an insight into evading the grapples of opponents.
"Ballet, a lot of it is how they lift and that correlates to lineouts and kick receipts," Cron told Radio Sport's Martin Devlin this morning. "Cage fighting ... was how they get an opponent off them when they're pinned to the ground. There is always correlation with anything you look at if you're pretty open minded about it and a wee bit left-fieldish."
The need for constant self improvement has been head coach Steve Hansen's mantra throughout his All Blacks' reign. His approach is along the lines of "if you're not improving, you're standing still and ready to be overtaken" and that is certainly borne out in Cron's recent investigations.
