Twenty years ago the All Blacks were involved in what most rugby folk consider the best of the seven World Cups.
It was the tournament where Jonah Lomu, rugby's first global superstar, announced his prodigious talent. It was also a tournament that is credited in large part for galvanising a fractured home country behind the most unlikeliest of teams.
The Springboks were seen as puppets of the internationally condemned apartheid era but when the President Nelson Mandela wore captain Francois Pienaar's No.6 jersey ahead of the final it was seen as the greatest gesture of reconciliation imaginable.
All that is for later, however. Long-time Herald rugby scribe Wynne Gray followed the All Blacks during the controversial and sometimes bitter lead-in to RWC '95, and during the tournament and its aftermath. This is the first of his three-part retrospective.
For three years, Laurie Mains and the All Blacks wrestle their way through international rugby. Together they have an inauspicious start in 1992, beaten by a pick-up World XV at Christchurch.
Mains had staved off the ambitions of John Hart to win the All Black coaching job and after the heat of that contest and difficult start, ends his opening season by leading the group through an exhilarating tour to Australia and historic return to South Africa.
Parts of that pattern re-emerge eight months shy of the 1995 World Cup when Mains is in the middle of an inquisition from his New Zealand Rugby employers to account for his work as Hart and others mount attacks on his coaching credentials.
Results in that '94 season are not compelling evidence for Mains' retention - two wins, three defeats and a draw against France, Australia and South Africa. The challenge for the NZR decision-makers is to judge the All Blacks' progress against an array of high-calibre sides that year.
Mains' record since his appointment stands at 13 wins, 8 losses and a draw as he prepares for his biggest test at the old NZR headquarters in the Huddart Parker Building on the Wellington waterfront. A layer of board and commercial support for Hart challenges Mains and his faction to convince NZR they are on track.
It is tight and Mains holds on. One of his international rivals that year, Springbok coach Ian McIntosh, is not so fortunate a month later when pugnacious boss Louis Luyt arranges his exit with Kitch Christie moving into the job.
Confirmation Mains will remain as All Black coach allows him to breathe a little. It's been tense throughout his term as opposition festers about his work and results.
Palming away that last attack allows Mains to activate the final stages of planning for his World Cup campaign. He's watched a lot of Australian sport to measure his ideas against the way their coaches prepare union, league and AFL sides.
He travels across the Ditch to meet league supremos Bob Fulton at Manly and Wayne Bennett at the Broncos where they discuss ideas about conditioning and how best to manage players through several peaks in the season. They share concepts and offer their experience from years at the coalface.
Plans firm up to get potential All Blacks into four camps around the country, starting at Queenstown when 31 players gather at the Nugget Point Resort to discuss everything about the upcoming campaign.
"We were unsettled that year losing 2-0 to France at home, but I think Laurie had this plan," captain Sean Fitzpatrick recalls.
"Probably since he was picked in '92, [he wanted] to play a hard fast type of game on top of the ground, as a point of emphasis. Those camps were hard work but there was still an edge about the unknown."
Fitness camps doubled as selection weekends. Campaign manager Brian Lochore recalled players being told anyone who was not fit mentally and physically was unlikely to get a boarding pass.
A month later outside back John Timu decides he is not going to be part of the group with a shock announcement he has signed to play league for the Bulldogs in Sydney. He is the All Blacks most experienced back with 26 caps and in his prime as a wing-fullback.
It is a huge loss but there is a golden lining.
A few days before Christmas the selectors call Jonah Lomu into camp as a replacement although they claim they are undecided whether to use him as a wing or loose forward.
That same month, halfback Graeme Bachop becomes the first offshore player chosen for the All Blacks when he agrees to head home after several seasons playing in Japan. It is another crucial piece of the jigsaw Mains needs if the All Blacks are going to play a torrid, high-tempo style.
The next big deal comes in February '95 at Taupo where the squad gathers for a brutal training regime and integrates Lomu, Graeme Bachop, Andrew Mehrtens and Jon Preston as they square off against Simon Culhane, Stephen Bachop, Stu Forster and Ofisa Tonu'u. Plans come unstuck for a final camp in Christchurch leading into a practice game in Greymouth.
Mains is furious claiming that scheme is compromised because eight All Blacks are hurt in an Auckland-North Harbour trial game that same week.
He accuses provincial coaches Graham Henry and Chas Ferris of undermining his ideas while outstanding loose forward Michael Jones offers to stand down from the World Cup. He damages his right knee and his no-play-on-Sunday stance will involve three games for the All Blacks if they reach the final.
Mains bats away the offer but a week before the World Cup squad announcement, the coach confirms Jones' injuries and the Sunday itinerary kills off the loose forward's touring chances.
In the interval, Otago loose forward Josh Kronfeld breaks his jaw playing in the Super 10 series in South Africa but after five weeks out, recovers to play a trial game with Waikato where he damages his ribs.
Selections are still fluid and another looseforward Kevin Schuler gains conditional approval from his Japanese employer (rugby code for another offshore selection?) to stay in New Zealand and try out for the World Cup. He is asked to play in a late trial game and halfback Ant Strachan also makes a late bid for selection.
A fortnight before the World Cup squad is named in late April, No 8 Zinzan Brooke strains his Achilles tendon, calf area in a trial game in Hamilton. Brooke is dispatched for intensive treatment including visits to the decompression chamber at Devonport in a bid to be fit for the trip.
The All Blacks demolish Canada 73-7 with fine displays on debut from Andrew Mehrtens with 28 points, fullback Glen Osborne and Kronfeld and head for their final televised trial under lights in Whangarei.
The selectors change their thoughts and decide to take 14 forwards and 12 backs with the crucial choices between Strachan and Stu Forster at halfback, Simon Culhane and Stephen Bachop as back-up first five-eighths, Blair Larsen or Richard Fromont at lock, Mark Allen or Loe at prop and Alama Ieremia against Lee Stensness in midfield.
Graeme Bachop, Mehrtens, Craig Dowd and Ian Jones are certainties for the trip and held in the reserves for the final trial, which is won 64-26 by the Probables. For Mains, it is vindication they have identified the top tier of players.
When the squad is announced, Culhane, Eric Rush and Norm Hewitt are the only uncapped players while Strachan's reintegration means he cancels his seat on a supporters' tour to take his place in the squad.
The medical staff are optimistic Brooke is responding to his exhaustive treatment and the No8 is cleared to take his place in the travelling group.
Every coach meets with the referees and World Cup officials and many, including Mains, are unhappy with tournament interpretations around lineout and tackled ball laws. There is also concern when lock Brooke damages his left leg and like his brother, will be a borderline choice for the final pool game against Japan.
When the side to play Ireland is announced, there is a left wing recall for the 1.95m, 119kgs Lomu before the All Blacks become the last of the 16 teams to move into action at this third World Cup.