Steve Hansen has a cherubic grin. This would be a pleasant discovery in the All Blacks' head coach at any time. But after four years of stony-faced mumbling in his press conferences and the occasional dry witticism, it is encouraging to see him positively jolly as he approaches the supreme test of his career.
Perhaps he has been foxing through the pool phase of the Rugby World Cup, for the same reason he said the team had been holding back its A-game. But that grin does not look forced. It looks like a man whose worries are behind him, who has done the hard work, has the team where he wants it and now cannot suppress the pleasure of what he is about to unleash.
That is what it will be. What rugby fan today is not now enjoying the anticipation of the games of sudden death that start next weekend? The pleasure always comes with the frisson of that day in Cardiff eight years ago vividly recounted by Dylan Cleaver in our edition today.
For many the memory of that quarter final loss to France will be a blur. They might remember the relative comfort of the first half as a fine All Black team seemed to be on the course it had set in the pool matches: crisp, confident and commanding.
Then that sickening moment in the second half when Luke McAlister, the most penetrating player in the backline that day, was sent off. The shape of the game changed. The team lost momentum. The All Blacks could do nothing right, the French nothing wrong in the eyes of a young English referee, Wayne Barnes. Perhaps he was unnerved by his McAlister mistake.
