League: Preparation gets down to business

Players warm up during a Kiwis training run at Parramatta Stadium before last week's test. Matt King / Getty Images

The Kiwis have again been using business psychologist Craig Lewis in the build-up to their return match against the Kangaroos after his psyching techniques were absorbed by the players before their first-up win.

They want to make history, and Lewis is encouraging them to think that way.

No Kiwis team have won two in a row against Australia in the same season since 1953.

The current crop have also had the support of veterans, including the president of the Ex-Kiwis Association Don Hammond, who was at their training this week. Phones have been running hot with messages along the lines of, "How good was that".

Kiwi great at five-eighth Dennis Williams reckoned Nigel Vagana had done a top job in the six jersey that has been a bone of contention for years.

He has no problems with Brent Webb, an Aussie who turned, being the attacking five-eighth and said they made a good combination.

Much has been made of the brotherhood within the team, the family spirit, the support for each other. Coach Brian McClennan has always operated that way.

His technical adviser, Graeme Norton, won the 1997 World Nines trophy to back up a string of successes on the local scene. These guys have the Kiwis playing a game they enjoy, a game they want to play.

Lewis provides his expertise mainly to corporates. He was brought in by Norton, who had used him to help prepare the North Harbour team he coached in the Lion Red Cup.

He had some involvement before the 2000 World Cup, but his methods have been applied more this year.

Lewis was giving little of the details of preparation away this week: "write up the opposition" is the line.

They would set the same match-day values, Lewis said, and a match-day theme.

In Sydney, the players were shown a video montage that included footage of the win in 1959, overlaid with an audio that reinforced their goals for the game.

The idea is to deliver a simple message just before the players take the field. In Sydney, it was "seize the day".

They accepted that the Australians would field the players every league fan considers to be the world's best, Darren Lockyer and Andrew Johns. But that did not give them the best team nor any right to win.

"We're not kidding ourselves. But if we can bring the right ethic, keep playing better, continue to develop our culture and grow ... You can see the difference since Sydney. There is a lot of self-belief in this team. There were a few things we believed we could do to them [the Kangaroos], and we achieved that."

Lewis said the players had been receptive to his approach and ideas because they trusted the coaches.

"It has been easy to build understanding. There is a fantastic trust in this team."

Themes of brotherhood, of family, of sharing the burden and any setbacks had been instilled.

A key theme had been absorbing the pressure from the Australians, thereby earning the right to apply some pressure, Lewis said. And then share the successes.

The players had been told that, as good as Stacey Jones and Ruben Wiki were, the truly great Kiwis would be the ones who overturned Australia on a repeat basis, the ones who won a test series.

They all wanted to make more history.

They had been told to trust in the preparation they knew to be good so that when game-time came they could bring into play the instincts that got them selected in the first place.

Much talk has surrounded Clinton Toopi's stunning return to form in test one, the second time he has scored three tries against Australia, after a very ordinary season with the Warriors.

Without speaking about individuals, Lewis said that such a turnaround came from environment. Instead of being told what not to do and being berated when things went wrong, players were being encouraged to trust the preparation, use their skills and back themselves.

The Japanese philosophy of gradual one-step improvement of Kaizen that has been applied "is a living process for us", Lewis said.