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Anton Oliver decided it would be best not to think too deeply about his last test on New Zealand soil.
At times during the day, though, he let his mind wander. He couldn't help it, he's just that sort of person - his thoughts roamed and tumble over
memories.
He cast his mind back, trying to remember where it was he first played rugby in New Zealand. He conjured images of himself as a barefoot, giddy six-year-old, happy as a lark with the leather grasped between his hands.
Before he knew it he was evaluated all the times in between, trying to assess just how much he had changed from those carefree schoolboy days.
But as quickly as his mind had drifted, he brought it to an abrupt stop.
"I hadn't thought too much about leaving New Zealand until today," the hooker said. "I started reflecting at times but I had to shut it down.
"For me to play well and do my job at hooker, I had to put all that to one side. It was emotional afterwards and I am sure at some stage all of this will come to the fore."
Oliver, who will stay in France after the World Cup to play for Toulon, said the emotional release in the changing sheds was significant and that the team had been reduced to a collective bunch of five-year-old playing in the sandpit.
That emotion was the combination of various factors. Oliver was not the only one making his farewell on New Zealand soil. Chris Jack and Byron Kelleher are confirmed departees, as is Aaron Mauger, who didn't come off the bench. Carl Hayman is heading to Newcastle, although he harbours hopes of one day returning, as does Luke McAlister, who is expected to joining Sale.
There was the obvious emotion, too, at having secured the Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations and exacting some revenge for the loss in Melbourne a few weeks ago.
But, interestingly, according to Oliver, there was also some relief that the blessed World Cup is finally now very much on the horizon. Next stop in fact.
"I think the rugby we have played so far has been an impediment," said Oliver. "I don't mean any disrespect to the Tri Nations or Bledisloe Cup by that.
"It is just that rugby is in a four-year cycle and there is a lot of relief that we have won the Tri Nations and the Bledisloe Cup. If we had lost, there would have been serious doubts heading into the World Cup.
"That defeat in Melbourne has been a positive. It was a great reminder that we are fallible, that we can lose."
Oliver seemed to be expressing a view from inside the camp that tallies with the one held by those outside; For better or for worse, the World Cup is the only thing that matters this year. Maybe that will all change in years to come if rugby can build an integrated season which requires every test to be treated as exactly that.
But for now, we have what we have and the entire season will be defined by what happens in France. And that is a pressure the players have felt and they are obviously just as pleased as everyone else to have made it through the last seven weeks with the silverware intact and at last be afforded a legitimate exclusive focus on the World Cup.
No one from either camp wanted to make too much of the victory in terms of what it meant for the big picture. One victory each hardly sets either side as a clear favourite and Oliver was preaching caution about the Wallabies.
"They are not a side that you can just beat in five minutes. We didn't spend enough time in the right end of the field in the first half to build pressure. We needed to get down their end and camp and we started to do that more in the second half."
