All Blacks enjoying day's well-earned R & R

All Black Victor Vito. Photo / Richard Robinson

The week leading into the Rugby World Cup final began in laidback fashion yesterday as the All Blacks were given time off to relax with friends and family.

The team handled the tense build-up to Sunday night's semifinal against the Wallabies and put in a clinical performance to triumph 20-6. Players were able to sleep late after the previous night's match kicked off at 9pm, and the mood around the team's Heritage Hotel base in downtown Auckland was easygoing.

Props Tony Woodcock and Ben Franks spent time with their partners and children, the latter with his newborn baby.

The only hint that a World Cup final was around the corner was the presence of Johnny Townsend and his bus draped in All Blacks flags parked across the road.

Mr Townsend, 40, bought the 21-seat Mercedes bus for $7500 on Trade Me and started his "Meke Azzz" bus hire with the World Cup in mind.

"I started just before the Rugby World Cup and put all my energy into it. I thought that'd be a good way to travel around during the World Cup, I bought it, and here we are."

He draped All Black flags outside the bus when he parked it across the road from his heroes' hotel on a slow business day yesterday.

Mr Townsend has collected 24 of the All Blacks' signatures and was waiting for the squad members he missed to emerge from their hotel. His enthusiastic praise for Cory Jane - "awesome, well done brother" - startled the All Black winger and his wife Amie as they walked past the bus.

Mr Townsend said he would be honoured to take the All Blacks to the final at Eden Park on Sunday, but wouldn't be fussed about missing other jobs on the night.

"I'm hoping to have a job, but you know, there's a World Cup final, and we'll have to weigh it up when the job comes along. But if not, then I'll be having a good night too."

Lock Brad Thorn said yesterday he would miss that kind of support when he retired after the World Cup.

"The New Zealand public have been huge for us. On the way to the game we're on the bus and we've got people outside here waiting for us to leave."

Thorn, who pumped up the crowd during the Wallabies match, said while some interpreted such fandom as pressure, to him "it's a lift".

The mood in the All Black camp yesterday shouldn't be taken as complacency, he said.

"Today you relax, you soak it in a bit. But come tomorrow, it's back to business. And do you think anyone's going to care who won the semifinal in 2011? No one's going to care."

Coach Graham Henry, who looked tired and spoke with a slight rasp, agreed.

"In 2007 after beating the French by 50 points or something previously, we got beaten in the quarter-final.

"That game caused some people a lot of pain ... the most bizarre game that I've ever been involved in. I won't define bizarre, not totally anyway. There is a lot of history here."