All Blacks manager Colin Meads admires South African rugby boss Louis Luyt's work in the game and is used to his arrogance and lack of tact. However, when the Springboks arrive late and Luyt makes tasteless remarks in his speech, it riles the All Blacks.
"A couple of players, who will be nameless, came to me and asked if they could go and tell him what they thought of him and I said, 'go for your bloody life' and that was not being a good manager," Meads recalls. "I should have been more diplomatic but I very much understood where they were coming from."
It is several more days before the All Blacks fly home. As the squad work through their disappointment, New Zealand Rugby decide not to pursue the food poisoning mystery, although Mains is determined to get some answers.
"My wife knew a private investigator in South Africa and, after we came home, we contacted him and asked him to see what he could find out, if anything, because I knew all the doors would be shut.
"He had moderate success and established a black lady had been employed by the hotel two days before we arrived and that day after we got sick, she disappeared completely."
Several months later, Mains gets word from financial contacts in London that bookmakers are behind the incident. He doesn't get much further and does not want the immense disappointment to infest his life.
"I would have loved to have won that World Cup for New Zealand rugby but it wasn't to be," he says.
In the days before they fly home, the All Blacks retreat to Sun City and, once again, spurn the tactless Luyt who offers them an all-expenses-paid holiday. There's plenty of planning needed for the rest of the All Black season.
After their last test in 1994, they have 248 days to prepare for their warm-up test against Canada before the World Cup. Now there's less than a month before they host the Wallabies at Eden Park.
They must also plan for professional rugby after, somewhat bizarrely, the day before the World Cup final, a Sanzar group announces their alliance and proposed competitions. They have a 10-year television rights deal with News Corp worth US$555 million, although signed contracts with players and coaches are some way in the distance.
On the plane home, Mains and his selectors talk about ideas for the Bledisloe Cup series and an eight-match end-of-year tour with three tests in Italy and France.
Some players such as captain Sean Fitzpatrick reconsider retirement, however, Graeme Bachop and Kevin Schuler will return to Japan at the end of the year and Brewer will call time.
For Eden Park, the All Blacks pick their World Cup final side and claim a flattering 28-16 victory against the Wallabies at Eden Park with Mehrtens' goal-kicking crucial in the one-try-a-side contest.
Lomu collects the only All Blacks try in the final minute and a week later has a massive impact in the return test in Sydney.
"He was devastating," Mains remembers. "The power and pace he displayed in that game to create those tries was out of the very top drawer. It was great to see a young man show the world what he could do."
It's the 100th test between the two countries and amateur rugby's final anthem as the players show an extra amount of emotion after the 34-23 win. Later that night, there are meetings across Sydney as the All Blacks receive offers from a rebel rugby troupe.
Negotiations are tense for many weeks with NZR late to get into the action but, eventually, they reclaim the All Blacks and the rest of the rugby community after Josh Kronfeld and Jeff Wilson agree terms and the others follow.
The All Blacks head for Italy and pick new faces Justin Marshall, Todd Blackadder, Taine Randell, Tabai Matson, Carlos Spencer and the uncapped Liam Barry and Richard Fromont.
Fitzpatrick misses the first game on tour because of a ban for punching rival hooker Anton Oliver in the first division final and Barry and prop Mark Allen return after two-year absences.
As the squad head into France, there is controversy when letters from Mains and four players addressed to French president Chirac condemning nuclear testing in the Pacific are published in L'Equipe national newspaper. Zinzan Brooke and Lomu thought seriously about withdrawing from the tour in protest at the testing.
It looks as though the All Blacks are protesting about playing rugby in their test at Toulouse. They lose 22-15 as the mistral or the 'mad wind' blows and tempers boil with France collecting their third successive win against Mains' men. The French rolling mauls are a great weapon while Wilson is troubled at fullback and Stu Forster struggles to connect with Simon Culhane, who starts at five-eighths instead of the injured Mehrtens.
Before the next midweek match, manager Colin Meads asks if he can address the squad about their attitude and his 10-minute haranguing shows as apprehensive players shuffle out of the meeting. Changes come for the repeat test in Paris.
Osborne returns at fullback, Marshall and Barry get their first caps as a capacity 50,000 crowd arrive in Paris hoping to see a home series win. Terrorist alerts mean the gates do not open until 90 minutes before kickoff as the Parc des Princes is swept for explosive devices.
The French are niggly but the All Blacks quell them with strong rugby across the park and stretch away to a 37-12 victory before the Brooke brothers shoulder Mains from the field. His international coaching career closes after 34 tests with 23 wins, 10 defeats and a draw.
As the festivities continue, Craig Dowd throws 100 tapes of Auckland reggae band Herbs anti-nuclear protest song French Letter into the crowd.
Lomu's fearsome display reminds Mains of a pre-tour conversation he has with team Dr John Mayhew about Lomu's weight gain.
For the first time, Mains hears about Lomu's kidney problems which cause his weight fluctuations.
"It creates an extra sense of wonder," says Mains, "because if you go to the second test against France on that tour, he was heavily involved in four of the tries and was sensational.
"There were four tests in '95 when Jonah was simply the best rugby player you could see."
20 years on: 1995 Rugby World Cup
PART 1 - THE COMING OF JONAH LOMU
PART 2 - THE TOURNAMENT
WERE THE ALL BLACKS POISONED?