Rugby World Cup: How Richie McCaw inspired All Black loose forwards to new heights

After the pool matches at this World Cup, the All Blacks loose forward trio of Richie McCaw, Jerome Kaino and Kieran Read had a meeting and decided to give themselves a challenge for the knockout phase.

And that was to get more out of themselves, to drive themselves on to greater heights in order to serve their team in the best way possible, and, to a man, they did it.

McCaw did it through is incredible willpower, Kaino did it with a defensive performance, especially in the quarter-final win over France and the final victory over Wallabies in which he looked like the enforcer of old, and Read did it with his lineout superiority and a performance against Australia in which he played through an incredible pain barrier.

His sprained right ankle, suffered in the first 10 minutes of the 34-17 victory over Australia at Twickenham, hampered him straight away. But, after some strapping, he forced the pain to the back of his mind and played on without a hint of a performance drop. Assistant coach Ian Foster said Read was being monitored and would have been replaced if he was struggling. Instead, he played the whole 80 minutes.

"Mentally, he got himself through that game," Kaino said. "I thought he was gone 10 minutes into it. I know Reado when he's injured and he can carry on. The look that I saw on his face, I knew his ankle wasn't that good. To fight through it shows how mentally strong he is. He's hugely important to our team. He's going to be the leader going forward and what he showed last night was awesome."

Kaino added of the resolve within the loose forward unit: "Us loosies challenged ourselves after the pool play to take it to another level - especially Richie. He said something to us: 'Big players step up in big games.'

"We've played a lot of rugby together and we knew we could bring it out of each other. We were quite hard on each other during the week in training and I thought we grew from the quarter-final to last night's game. The pressure put on me over the last three weeks brought the best out of me and I really enjoyed it."

Kaino was at his ferocious best in the knockout matches. Against France in Cardiff he was a revelation - 70 per cent of his tackles were dominant, an almost unheard of statistic in test rugby. He was good again against South Africa before being one of the players of the final.

He said of his mindset for France: "I knew the history that the All Blacks have with France in Northern Hemisphere World Cups and I just didn't want to be part of a team that fell to them in a quarter-final. We wanted to dominate from the outset and that was my role as well, to set the tone from the first tackle to the first run. That was all I was thinking - to tackle everything in red."

The All Blacks' attitude was there to see from the kick-off at Twickenham yesterday. First, Israel Folau was smashed over, and then Michael Hooper. The tone was set for the match.

"We analysed them and we know they love front-foot ball," Kaino said. "They have dangerous players - like Michael Hooper who is like an extra back he is so agile and quick.

"We felt that if we could stop their go-forward ball then two or three phases later they probably wouldn't have any option. I thought it worked for us."

Kaino, contemplating a break with his family before returning to the Blues, has more reason than many to look forward to getting home. His wife, Di, is due to give birth to a third child in December, a brother for their son Kobe and daughter Milan.

And he said it might not be until he arrives at Auckland airport that what he and his team have achieved will finally hit home.

"It won't fully sink in until we arrive home and share it with loved ones and see how special it is to New Zealanders."

- By Patrick McKendry in London