The 64-year-old dairy farmer from Manawatu, who often was unavailable for tours because of his commitment to the business, says fans need not have knee-jerk reactions to outcomes of games against minnows.
"They are second-rate teams who are up against [formidable] opposition and are probably playing the biggest games of their lives.
"So they throw everything at them without any set patterns that the All Blacks are used to."
When the ABs apply pressure on some second-tier nations, such as Italy, at the World Cup the opposition tend to wilt, but the Aussies have had the propensity to come back stronger following rebuffs in the build-up to the World Cup.
Knight is unequivocal about who will win the World Cup - New Zealand.
"We'll do very well because we're a very proud nation when it comes to playing rugby."
While coach Steve Hansen and Co appear to be rotating players willy-nilly in the eyes of the rugby faithful, Knight says what is satisfying is when a player is given an opportunity to slip into the equation he does extremely well to reflect the depth and stability within the squad.
"You know, someone's always slotting in with 14 other good guys."
In his tenure as an All Black he learned that newcomers always had the footprints of other All Blacks to follow, "so you had a lot to look up to".
Consequently incoming players didn't have to look far for inspiration or reinforcement when they slipped on their jersey.
Are the New Zealand coaching stable guilty of veering too much towards the dad's army this World Cup?
"Nah, but then I'm going to say that anyway because I played until I was 37," says the man whose mental fortitude was indisputable on the foundation of representing his country in the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.
He clinched a bronze medal in the super heavyweight (+100kg) division of freestyle wrestling.
He, Andy Dalton and John Ashworth were dubbed "The Geriatrics" - also the title of a combined autobiography - because the 30-plus trio were perceived to be veterans by the time the Lions series arrived in 1983.
Knight doesn't think South Africa will pose too many threats in the march towards the final.
"I don't think they are as ruthless as they used to be."
How have the ABs evolved for better or worse since his time?
"They don't have the freedom we had," he says.
"They just can't go do anything nowadays because of the media spotlight on them but I guess they are now professionals."
Knight says when he toured England the ABs were away from home for 18 weeks.
"Today you don't see them doing stuff like that but, again, they are professionals and it's all for the money so we did it for love," says the former tighthead, who was an adroit scrummager and caught the eye with his agility in open or broken play.
Knight does not feel left out on the mind-boggling lucrative gains players have compared with his era. "Never, because of the people you know and you come out of it.
"It's simply something you do in the passing through of life."
The protests during the Springboks tour of New Zealand have left an indelible impression on his time in the black jersey.
"Those guys who went on that Cavaliers tour became a very close-knit outfit so, yeah, I enjoyed that kind of stuff."
He received a two-test match suspension for joining the rebel tour to South Africa.
The man who was targeted in 1980 with pieces of timber from rioters in Fiji, also collected a flour bomb on his head the following year from protesters at Eden Park.
Ironically, he scored his only test try that year and also received the national player of the year award.
Knight these days keeps an eye out for current All Black forward Sam Whitelock.
"I used to play alongside his father, so Sam used to be there [as a child], so he [Sam] is going really good," he says when asked who is favourite All Black is now.
He says his daughter, who has just given birth to a child and could not be at the races in Hastings last Saturday, had earlier come to the Hawke's Bay Steeplechase and "got a bit of buzz coming second with one of her horses".
