Gregor Paul and Patrick McKendry give their final thoughts pitch side at Twickenham as Dan Carter practices his kicking before the Rugby World Cup final against Australia.
There are three things that all major international sports teams have to manage. The All Blacks do all three better than anybody else. But don't expect them to tell you their state secrets.
1. Keeping players out of trouble off the field
There's a reason why the All Blacks don't often make the front pages for all the wrong reasons. Players who misbehave get sent to Keven Mealamu's room for a quiet chat. They don't often go twice. One of the unique drivers of the team's ongoing success is a culture of high standards, on and off the field, set by the players rather than the management. This empowerment started under Graeme Henry in 2004 following a heavy loss to the Springboks, which led to a boozy session where All Blacks were left strewn on the floor. A crisis meeting was held in Auckland where new rules were put in place to change the culture. Binge drinking and bringing women back to the hotel were now out of bounds. That culture has become even stronger under Steve Hansen, who places huge importance on the manner in which his team conduct themselves.
The benefit of the player-led leadership group is two-fold. Positive peer pressure means the All Blacks keep each other accountable to attain those standards. Secondly, because the players make the rules, it means they are not butting heads with a dictatorial management team. When grown men aren't allowed to go out for a drink to celebrate, as happened under Stuart Lancaster's watch in England, rebellion grows within the ranks. Ditto Australia. The consequences are tabloid scandals which can derail the team. Distractions must be kept to a minimum, so it was the All Black players who held frank talks with management to make a joint decision Wives and Girlfriends should not stay with the team during the Rugby World Cup. They are allowed to visit when is not training.
Hansen believed having family nearby created fewer distractions for players, because they're "not fretting about the people you love because they are here and you can see them.
"But [it's] also having the understanding that there is times when I have to go to where I have to go to, to be a rugby player." - Jared Savage
2. Managing the mental side of the game
Sports psychologist Gilbert Enoka. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Self belief doesn't always come naturally. Could the All Blacks, a man down and five points in arrears at halftime during their World Cup semifinal against South Africa, have fought back to win without specialist mental training? The evidence suggests not. Enter Gilbert Enoka, the team's mental skills coach.
There was no panic among the players, despite the apparent desperate situation at Twickenham last weekend and that's because they have become used to playing with clear heads despite the pressure. For supporters back home and around the world it was all going a bit 1999 against France in the semifinal at the same venue, or eight years later against the same opposition in Cardiff.
Not this time. Just as they did against France at Eden Park four years ago, the All Blacks got home by absorbing the pressure.
The team's physical fitness has got them out of several tight spots over the years, but so has their mental fitness, and it might just be the key ingredient in defeating the Wallabies at Twickenham on Sunday.
Enoka, a former volleyball international, rarely gives interviews and the All Blacks won't put him up either. But in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph last year, Enoka explained his methods in attempting to get players to think clearly under pressure.
His method is about what he calls blue-head thinking, and red-head thinking.
A person who is thinking clearly and fully engaged on a subject is making their best decisions - blue-head thinking. A distracted person who might be experiencing stress or frustration is in red-head mode.
"The brain is made up of three parts: instinct, emotion and thinking," Enoka told the newspaper. "What often happens under pressure is that the thinking shuts down so you are relying on emotion and instinct. That in turn means you can no longer pick up the cues and information to make good decisions."
The paper said the All Blacks had techniques to pull themselves from red-head back to blue-head thinking. "Richie McCaw would stamp his feet, Kieran Read would stare at the farthest point in the stadium. All these strategies re-engage the player in the moment and back into blue-head mode."
Enoka told The Telegraph that his role is "equipping our men with the tools to be able to perform under pressure - giving them the mental skills they need to be strong."
They might not beat the Wallabies, but they certainly have the tools - both physical and mental - to do so. - Pat McKendry
3. Looking after the WAGs
All Black Dan Carter and his wife, Honor. Photo / Sarah Ivey
Nothing if off-limits more than the All Blacks talking about how they manage wives and girlfriends of players. Media requests for comments on anything to do with the players' partners are routinely rebuffed. WAGs, of course, have been the downfall of many an international sporting side, most recently the Australian cricket team whose loss of the Ashes to England this year was partly blamed on a spat among player wives.
What we do is that the All Blacks take an inclusive attitude to players' families. While they don't stay with the players in the team hotel and there is a strict "no women" rule in terms of the floors the All Blacks occupy in their hotels, team management have encouraged the players to spend their days off with families at the World Cup.
Another theory on why the All Blacks seem to have less problem with WAGs than other countries is that our fairer sex are not as ego-driven and self-centred as others around the world, particularly those who are celebrities in their own right. The Kiwi women seem to be more grounded and supportive rather than being out to make a name for themselves. Even those with their own profile, such as Dan Carter's wife Honor, a former Black Sticks hockey star, and Richie McCaw's squeeze Gemma Flynn, also a Black Stick, are circumspect on social and mainstream media and don't go out of their way to draw attention.
One of the All Blacks' secrets remains a mystery and unquantifiable to even them. It's the hidden force of being the only country in the world where rugby is the national sport.
The benefits of that are largely intangible but unquestionably significant. Even as the sporting programs in most New Zealand schools diversify, rugby still commands hearts as much as it does minds. The lure of the First XV remains magnetic in a way perhaps being in the elite swim squad never will.
School cultures are still, consciously or not, driven by the unwritten premise that young men in New Zealand should play rugby. The idolisation of the First XV in traditional boys schools gives out both overt and subliminal messages that there is something heroic and almost patriotic about aspiring to be an All Black.
The growing commercial and media profile of leading All Blacks endorses this notion of rugby as a game for noble warriors.
And aspiration is a critical part of success. The benefit is three fold: the scale of rugby's pervasive marketing is such that it ensures the sport still has the first pick of the best athletes.
Secondly, the strength of the desire within those athletes is strong as typically it is embedded from an early age. There's hardly been an All Black who only hit on the goal later in life. Even allowing for the poetic licence, it is mostly true that All Blacks can trace the origins of their dream back as far as their first rational thoughts.
Thirdly, and maybe crucially, there is the breadth and quality of the rugby education available. There is valid intellectual capital everywhere: and every young Kiwi has in their head at least one rock solid piece of advice that will serve them well throughout their rugby career.
Be it from a father, uncle, family friend or teacher, there's always good advice being imparted. Then there is the vocational aspect - the amount that can be absorbed from watching a game that is played nationwide and heavily broadcast.
Put all this together and add in the fact most Kiwis kids will have a rugby ball in their hands at some point each day and the outcome is players reaching the professional ranks with advanced skills and innate tactical knowledge.
