Rugby: Lifting the lid on the pressure cooker

Veteran All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu plays a crucial role as a mentor to the newer squad members. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The All Blacks have become masters at bringing through new players who can contribute from day one

It used to be a lonely, painful business trying to survive as a young All Black. It was as if Friedrich Nietzsche had created the team's culture, persuading management and senior players that what didn't kill the new boys would make them stronger.

Sink or swim was it how was for much of the late amateur period. New players could be summoned to the back seat of the bus and subjected to the sort of peer humiliation known only to pupils at England's most expensive private schools.

A senior room-mate could go days on end not saying a word yet somehow make it clear when the younger man should be making the tea. In the intense and ferocious build-up to a critical test, the new All Blacks would be largely confused as to who exactly was the enemy.

Some players who went on to become good All Blacks say playing tests was actually light relief in their early years. They also say the tough apprenticeship made them.

This All Blacks side wouldn't agree that the best route to success is creating a culture where natural selection prevails. On the eve of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, perhaps the achievement that means most to them since they won the last tournament is that they have created an environment both inclusive and welcoming, one that has been a major factor in their success since 2011.

Modern football teams can often sound like they have swallowed the latest bestselling self-help book, but what the All Blacks have done is neither abstract nor immeasurable.

To win 42 of 47 tests since the 2011 final alludes to their culture being strong. More telling is that new players have found their feet quickly. Plenty - Aaron Smith, Julian Savea, Beauden Barrett, Sam Cane, Charles Piutau and Nehe Milner-Skudder - have been exceptional on debut and became must-picks in a flash.

The All Blacks have taken out - as much as they can - the intimidation factor. It has been a conscious decision to ease the path for new arrivals on the basis that it's highly improbable an inexperienced player is going to perform well in a culture of stress, bewilderment and exclusion.

If you look at the last 3 years we have brought in a lot of young guys. We want a culture where they can come in and be themselves and, yes, they have got to deal with the pressure of being in the All Blacks and survive. But we also want them to come in feeling like it is a safe environment where they can make themselves vulnerable and share the pressures they are under. Because ultimately we want them to go out on to the park with a really clear head and really confident with a simple mindset that is expressing themselves.

Ian Foster

Having been around since 2004, head coach Steve Hansen has seen too many potentially good All Blacks fail to cope with the pressure and expectation surrounding the national team.

There's stress enough in his view and if the top priority is to do what's best for the team, making new players feel like they have no right to be there or contribute is an immediate breach of that over-riding principle.

What happens these days is that senior players reach out and act as mentors. There's a realisation that little things matter - so an old head like Keven Mealamu will plonk himself down at the lunch table next to a new boy and chat like they are long-lost best mates.

Richie McCaw, aware that his reputation alone can be terrifying for the uncapped, tries to make a point of seeking out the new men and letting them know he knows they are there.

Team meetings don't see old heads stay exclusively on transmit and new ones on receive. Because there's no point in having someone out on the field who doesn't understand what is expected and is so wound up that they can't perform.

"The days of letting guys play 10 to 15 tests before they play a good one is something we are trying to fight against," says Foster.

"Your environment tries to sort that out. Our leaders work really hard on that too to help make the guys feel part of the team rather than be intimidated by it."

The importance of this culture needs to be fully appreciated in the context of the make-up of successful Rugby World Cup squads. The formula that has had most success is a core of experienced players with a few young, relative unknowns adding energy, excitement and x-factor.

The All Blacks have two of those unknowns in their 31 - Nehe Milner-Skudder and Waisake Naholo. The former has played two tests, the latter one and the All Blacks are gambling that they are going to be able to cope with the pressure and feel the required level of confidence and comfort to be themselves and deliver.

The All Blacks need these two more than they would like to let on. Analysis is so detailed - particularly when teams are trying to pick apart the All Blacks - that something different is required.

Naholo and Milner-Skudder are the random element a hugely experienced squad needs and they are going to have to feel comfortable being All Blacks. They are going to have to be comfortable being inexperienced All Blacks surrounded by men who have seemingly been there for ever.

"You always find it tough coming into the All Blacks environment," says All Blacks utility back Colin Slade, who was asked to play first-five in the knockout rounds of the last Rugby World Cup when he was still in his first year of test football.

"It is quite intimidating purely because of who you are playing with. You are playing with legends of the game and for a coaching group that has been here for a long time.

"We have our ways of doing things in the All Blacks and it can be intimidating and overwhelming. But the way the younger guys are able to adjust and the way they have played over the last few years is evidence that it must be - I wouldn't say easy - more adaptable.

"We certainly encourage guys to express themselves.

"The proof of the pudding is in their performance."