All Blacks coach Steve Hansen and captain Kieran Read, during their press conference. Photo / Mark Mitchell
COMMENT
The All Blacks of the not so distant past were a relatively precious bunch whose day could be thrown by the wrong milk being poured in their cereal.
Seriously, if some of them couldn't find the TV remote within the first five seconds of looking for it, the meltdown could be spectacular.
Unfortunately, All Blacks' management only found this out when the team infamously imploded at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
It was a campaign that was riddled with all sorts of dramas – mostly minor – and the All Blacks didn't cope with the hand fate dealt them at that tournament.
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They were all a fluster in Edinburgh – where they strangely had to play despite the tournament being in France – because they had been given the wrong balls with which to practise their goal-kicking before the game.
There was another little unsettling moment when World Rugby breached all sorts of protocols immediately before the All Blacks played Portugal to ask them to go easy in the scrums.
And a more significant wobble when New Zealand Rugby lost it's week-long fight to persuade World Rugby to allow the All Blacks to play their quarter-final against France in their traditional jersey.
That battle was as epic as the actual game in Cardiff, with two local Welsh clubs asked mid-week to play in various versions of the French and New Zealand kit under lights on TV to see what clashed and what didn't.
The All Blacks were already half beaten when they ran out for that game in the horrible silver and black monstrosity in which they rightly never wanted to be seen.
Wayne Barnes has long been accused of landing the sucker punch that knocked the All Blacks out of that tournament but he would never have been a factor had there been a collective awareness that it was highly probable a 28-year-old referee with minimal experience may have a howler that would require a degree of resilience and adaptability to safely negotiate.
No, the problem back then wasn't Barnes but a sense of entitlement that left the All Blacks flummoxed if not everything went the way they expected.
They seemed to have it in their heads that life owed them something and therefore they should be immune from the quirks World Cups throw up.
Four years later and the All Blacks were champions, a title that was a testament to their resilience and vastly different attitude towards adversity.
In 2011 the All Blacks knew that almost anything could go wrong and so they could cope with Richie McCaw's broken foot.
They could hold everything together when Daniel Carter's groin snapped at the end of pool play and then his two replacements Colin Slade and Arron Cruden hobbled out in the next games.
And they managed to find a way to perform at their best after Cory Jane and Israel Dagg had drunk themselves into a spot on the front page a few days before the quarter-final.
That side in 2011 got what the World Cup was all about – a constant assault on character brought about by the most unpredictable events.
Here we are now halfway through the 2019 tournament and the All Blacks have been king hit by the most random event in the history of the tournament, the cancellation of a pool game due to an extreme weather phenomenon.
This is a bit more significant than having to wear the alternate jersey, or the air pressure being wrong in the practice balls.
To miss a pool game that was an integral plank in the overall preparation is a big blow for the All Blacks.
The impact is real however much they will try to mitigate the cancellation over the weekend by knocking lumps out of each other at training in lieu of the Italians not being able to do it.
All of their planning in terms of readying the team for the knockout rounds was built on playing four, not three pool games.
The test with Italy was a critical step in the process to be in top form by the first knockout round and to skip it, leaves Brodie Retallick and Jack Goodhue particularly short of rugby but the whole team a little light on action given it will, come next Saturday, be 28 days since they had their last and only full noise encounter at this tournament.
But the impact goes deeper than the practical. There's the emotional side to consider: the frustration at being denied the chance to play, the anger at seeing headlines saying the All Blacks refused to shift the game to the Monday.
There's no doubt some confusion about whether any of this is fair or unfair and a lingering concern that somehow, through no fault of their own, the campaign is tainted and hence victory should it come, will be a little hollow.
The tournament has been hijacked by the cancellations and so this is a drama on the scale never encountered in 2007 and a genuine test of the resolve of this All Blacks' side as they see whether they can find a way to process what's happened without spinning out of control.
If they are to win this tournament now, they will have to prove they are as adaptable and as flexible as they say they are and understand that their future depends on making the most of a bad situation rather than having a tantrum about the bad situation.
How much faith anyone should have in their ability to do just this is hard to tell for this is a team that hasn't encountered much in the way of adversity since they won the last World Cup.
They have had plenty of injuries and clusters in one position, but these days that's more par for the course than real adversity.
And besides, which team hasn't at one point or another in the last four years popped their head into the medical room and gasped at the occupancy level?
The officials robbed the All Blacks of the Lions series in 2017 and there was a bit of media heat leading into this year's second Bledisloe test given the stakes and lack of performance the week before.
But it's not as if the All Blacks have been knee-deep in drama since 2015 and as World Cup cycles go, it has been surprisingly light on adversity.
And now, three weeks into their World Cup they have run smack bang into a drama bigger than any they have previously encountered.
How they deal with it will determine their fate at this tournament and while it's not much to go on, head coach Steve Hansen, who is at his fifth World Cup, had the situation summed up and the route to overcoming the problem well mapped out less than an hour after the news broke.
"We have got something that is out the control of everybody's making. It is one of nature's quirks, it has been chucked in front of us and people have had to make a decision and because it comes down to that, it is really quite simple.
"Now, the most important thing is how we adapt and adjust to it. So what do we have to adapt and adjust to? Okay, the players have to get their heads around the fact they are not playing. The coaching group and strength and conditioning group have to get their heads around the fact we are not playing and change our training accordingly.
"Now that it has happened we have to adapt and adjust. That is what you have to do on the park and you have got to do it off the park sometimes too."
How the All Blacks rated in their 43-17 win over France in Wellington.