Test rugby is a stressful business for players, especially inexperienced ones. The expectations on the All Blacks are constantly high and coach Steve Hansen believes the youngsters touring for the first time will be much better for the trip despite a lack of game time.
Lock Dominic Bird, prop Jeff Toomaga-Allen, loose forward Luke Whitelock and wing Frank Halai played in only the Tokyo test against Japan, while halfback TJ Perenara made his debut yesterday against Ireland in Dublin. "Apprentice" flanker Ardie Savea was only taken for the experience.
Hansen's bigger picture is the 2015 World Cup and he believes getting used to the intensive rugby experience and seeing how the senior players prepare and conduct themselves off the pitch will provide an exponential leap in the development of the newcomers. Steven Luatua made mention on this trip of being amazed at the sight of Richie McCaw in a constant state of movement against Japan - that kind of experience can only come from playing or training alongside him.
"That was a positive for them to get them on the bench or on the field," Hansen said. "To have them experience everyday life touring, particularly up in the Northern Hemisphere where there's a lot of distractions [is a positive]. To go to a place like London which is a massive city, probably one of the great cities of the world, you easily get distracted. You need to learn how to deal with that. To stay on task is important. Some of them are going to get the benefit of a game for the Barbarians. And there's no pressure of a test match but there will be a similar test-match type atmosphere with about 70,000 people going.
"They'll get home and reflect over summer and our coaches have had a good look at them and sat down with them individually and given them some tasks to go away and work on. Hopefully we'll see them improve because of that.
