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The All Blacks will be "absolutely gutted" and some of the players may never get over this morning's loss to France.
Former All Black and 2003 World Cup selector Kieran Crowley said the players will deal with the loss as individuals.
"You've got to hold your head up high. They gave it their best shot on the day but they weren't good enough," Crowley said.
The All Blacks will "get the knives chucked at them" but the people who know the game will be forgiving, he said.
Crowley said some people will blame the referee for the sin binning of Luke McAlister and the possible French forward pass but that's all part of the game.
He said the pain will be with some of the players and coaches for the rest of their lives.
"The bottom line is when you wake up the next morning, you're not in the semi-final," Crowley said.
Former All Black Mark Hammett was in the team at the 2003 World Cup and said Richie McCaw and the rest of the side will be feeling "pretty empty".
"They will keep going. How the guys will deal with grief is no different to how other people deal with grief, whether it's a split marriage or a death in the family," Hammett said.
He said the lack of strong opposition in the pool stage has taken it's toll on the All Blacks.
"They got used to being ruthless in terms of converting territory into points," Hammett said.
Dave Hewett was a teammate of Hammett's at the 2003 World Cup and agrees the pool games were not as rigorous as they could have been.
"They've got to get back on the horse. The longer you dwell on it, the worse it gets," Hewett said.
He said it is something that never leaves you as a player but unfortunately in New Zealand when a team has a bad day, everyone knows about it.
"Obviously the ref made some mistakes but you can't blame him for that. He's only human. If they had gone the other way, we wouldn't remember them," Hewett said.
Former All Black Mark "Bull" Allen said some of the current All Blacks have been there before.
"Perhaps you don't get over it. All of us in life have things that stump us," Allen said.
It's not just a game for the players, he said.
"They've put four years of their life and longer into this. It's hugely disappointing. They're not just going to wake up and find it's all gone, it's going to hang around and they've just got to learn to live with it," Allen said.
The All Blacks phase after phase attack in the second half where they were unable to score would have brought the team's confidence down a bit and the fifty-fifty passes were also a let down, he said.
Former All Black Bernie McCahill said the team should return home as heroes.
"They should, they've done extremely well over the last four years. They've given us plenty of highlights," McCahill said.
He said the result had nothing to do with the referee.
"The French played their final and we played a quarter final and mentally, that's huge," McCahill said.
The All Blacks should head to the beach, play a round of golf or go fishing, he said.
"Think about life and what's important and just get on with things."
