Wayne Smith is leaning into past experiences in order to best prepare the Black Ferns for their upcoming Rugby World Cup bid.
Hosting the first women's Rugby World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as entering the tournament as the defending champions, comes with plenty of additional pressure. However, it's something Smith is familiar with.
Smith was part of the All Blacks during the ill-fated 2007 campaign in France as well as the successful 2011 tournament in New Zealand and has experienced the highs and lows the sport's major tournament has to offer.
"Clearly, we learned a lot in 2011, but it's prior to that where we learned the most," Smith reflected.
"2007 was fairly traumatic. When we were coming home from France after the quarter-final, landing in Tokyo in transit, and seeing all the supporters coming over for the semifinal was fairly traumatic. I didn't want to go through that again.