The dejected All Blacks go through a media session after the 2007 loss to France.
Photo / Brett Phibbs
The dejected All Blacks go through a media session after the 2007 loss to France.
Photo / Brett Phibbs
The All Blacks are on track to meet Ireland or France in the quarter-finals at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, the venue of their calamitous exit in 2007. Since then, they’ve won the World Cup and forged an incredible winning record. The monkey is off the back ... or is it?
Relief. Not joy or elation. Relief was the first response of Richie McCaw and Steve Hansen when the final whistle blew and the All Blacks had clung on to beat France 8-7 in the 2011 Rugby World Cup final at Eden Park.
The pressure was immense after 24 barren years at the Rugby World Cup, like a balloon pumped after each early exit and now at breaking point.
Injuries had been cruel - Dan Carter was out of the tournament and McCaw was playing on a broken foot.
Long suffering fans couldn't handle another failure - especially on home soil - and the All Blacks knew it.
"I didn't say much, I just sat there for a bit ... You feel relief ... you just feel relieved because you're not just doing it for yourself," a choked up Hansen said, on the Weight of a Nation documentary.
"You put a lot into it and you could see the relief, in everybody ... the public. The joy that you've given those people is amazing."
McCaw was buggered: "Thank Christ for that ... It's all over, huge relief ... I'm meant to be happy now. I was that shattered, I was just happy it was over."
Fast-forward four years and Hansen and McCaw are again carrying the hopes of a rugby-mad nation.
Yet this time around, the burden of expectation seems to be a lighter load and Hansen, in particular, has cut a relaxed, even playful figure, despite the glare of the British press.
"Walk towards the pressure," is the All Blacks' mantra for this tournament and the players, free of the claustrophobia-inducing nature of being the host nation and stigma of repeat failure, seem to be taking it on board.
That serenity also seems to be flowing down to supporters.
When Martin Snedden was planning the 2011 World Cup, one of the big problems identified "absolutely right towards the top of the list" was the All Blacks would fail again.
With millions of viewers watching from around the world and thousands of visitors, Snedden couldn't risk New Zealanders switching off and the tournament fizzing out.
A core strategy was to get towns and provinces to take "ownership" of the visiting nations, get in behind the minnows and create a festival atmosphere which everyone could enjoy.
And it worked, said Snedden, who noted that approach also took the pressure off the All Blacks right until the "pointy end".
"I think the whole country felt like we had a monkey on our back last time around, with the added pressure of a home tournament," he said. "It was a hell of a pressure cooker for the All Blacks.
"Now that we are the defending champions, and we're the number one team by a mile, there is pressure which goes with that. But they don't have the monkey on the back any more."
Not that players or fans will be ambivalent about success in England.
"Everyone is much more relaxed this time, but still desperate to win. Each one of those early exits were calamitous. ... the monkey was intolerable, it had been going on so long. So psychologically, [the 2011 win] means there's less pressure now."
One of those calamitous losses was the 43-31 defeat to France in the semifinals of the 1999 World Cup.
John Hart's coaching career ended that day, but the vitriolic reaction to the loss was more painful - fans spat on him when he turned up at Addington racecourse and threw cans of beer at his horse, Holmes D G.
Hart is sure New Zealand has grown up since then, and cites more "muted" responses to the losses in 2003 and 2007
"I think the public and the media have matured. As a fan, we are so committed and the expectation is that we will win. But there's a growing understanding about a knockout competition, a realisation that the best team doesn't always win."
The bounce of the ball, the ref's call, the other team firing on the day. All three were factors in 1999 and Hart said 2011 could have been the same.
"We need to recall that we won by one point. It could have been a very different result. It shows you how difficult it is to win and how easy it is to lose.
"And people are starting to get that. That doesn't mean we don't want to win, everyone wants to win it. But I think the country will be understanding [about a loss]. Because it's only one game."
But there is a difference between being the best team in the world, which the All Blacks invariably are, and being world champions in a sport which is a major chunk of our national identity.
Dr Gary Hermansson, a sports psychologist who works closely with the Black Caps and Olympic teams, says "rightly or wrongly rugby defines who we are".
"Rugby became part of how we defined ourselves on the world stage. We've grown up with this notion that it really, really matters. You can argue whether it should, but clearly it does to a large proportion of the population.
"As a nation, we add to the problem. All the players have grown up in this environment, they know that this matters to the country so it's hard to turn that around."
The All Blacks' "walk towards the pressure" mantra was using language to redefine anxiety as excitement, rather than trying to keep it at bay.
All Blacks Keith Robinson, Chris Jack, Reuben Thorne, Conrad Smith, Sitiveni Sivivatu, sit during a media session after France's shock win against the All Blacks. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Anxiety is always part of sport, said Dr Hermansson, and the symptoms were fight, flight or freeze. By embracing pressure, Dr Hermansson said, fear could become courage.
"There's no point trying to hide from it, so the All Blacks are trying to deal with it head on.
"Language becomes a key part of your preparation. 'We're All Blacks, we're up to it, we walk towards pressure, we're excited'. When you start talking like that, you make a shift mentally."
He agreed that winning the William Webb Ellis trophy in 2011 had lifted a huge mental burden from the team.
"If we hadn't won last time, the pressure right now would be massive. This time, a loss would be disappointing and we'd be a bit shocked but it would be 'Well, okay, let's look to Tokyo'," said Dr Hermansson, referring to the 2019 World Cup venue.
"If we hadn't won last time, it would be gee, a loss now would be embarrassing and terrible. It would be entirely different."
Although they ended 24 years of mounting pressure in 2011, Dr Hermansson questioned whether the All Blacks had exorcised the mental demons of past failures.
In his opinion, the only sudden death game of any quality was the 20-6 victory over Australia in the semifinal.
"And the Wallabies had beaten us coming into the tournament, so in one sense we were the underdog. Make us the underdog and we'll beat anyone. Make us the favourite and we'll struggle.
"We won in 2011 but we choked at the same time. We should have beaten France easily but the tension crept in. Have we really dealt with that at all?"
The All Blacks record since then has been superb, with only three losses and several come-from-behind last gasp victories.
But knockout matches are different, said Dr Hermansson, and this time there was no home ground advantage.
"You lose and go home. That will change things because mentally, you shift ahead of where you are. You get preoccupied with something in the future which you can't control and when that happens, basically, anxiety fills that space.
"When that happens, the mind and body get out of alignment.
"Skill and decision making levels drop away and then you're in trouble ...
"So everyone is relaxed now, but the real test is when we get to the sharp end of the tournament."
If the All Blacks lose in the Cardiff quarter-final, how should we deal with the grief and agony?
Associate Professor Sarb Johal from Massey University, who specialises in disaster mental health, says it all comes down to attachment.
"We're kind of picturing ourselves as being in the final and if it doesn't eventuate, we already have a picture in our mind as to what that's going to look like.
"So when it doesn't happen, we experience a real sense of loss."
Some would pay obsessive attention to all the details, trying to make sense of what happened. Others would say they did not want anything to do with it, did not want to talk about it and suggest they would never follow the team again.
"The healthy way is probably somewhere in between," Dr Johal said.
"Sitting there watching or carrying on drinking is probably not a great thing to do. Because it's just going to kind of accentuate or magnify the feelings that you're already experiencing."
Trying not to think about it is something else to avoid, he said.
"The more we try to stop thoughts, the more that they come up in our minds."
Dr Johal said you had to accept that you would think about it from time to time and needed to have a good set of distraction methods ready - like going out for a run or watching a "The Best of the All Blacks" compilation.
He said that with the games being in the early morning in New Zealand, fans would have to get through a whole day if the All Blacks lost.
"So for those people who are here watching it, make sure you've got a kind of plan B if it doesn't work out, and rehearse that a bit."
