All Blacks get back on the train gang

By WYNNE GRAY

Long before the prospective All Blacks arrived for their first training camp there was an edge to their discussions.

Not about the scenery or student life at the nearby Massey University or the best bars and restaurants in Palmerston North. Much of the disquiet was about how All Black coach Wayne Smith would assess them and the tasks he would set for them at the Rugby Institute.


There was a consensus - it was going to be a rough ride.


They had been warned. When the All Black selectors met their 30 test players-in-waiting, they were given specific fitness drills and told they would be tested to the limits, individually and collectively.


Any notions they were heading for some indulgent pampering at the Palmerston North retreat were removed.


Of course, peer pressure kicked in from those who had been to the sessions with Smith before. They wound up some of their mates but privately they were also a little uneasy about what lay ahead after the moderate All Black results in 2000 and the failure of any New Zealand side to make the Super 12 playoffs.


It was worst for centre Keith Lowen, who was the only player who had never been to the institute.


At some stage the rest had all trained there, with the All Blacks, the NZ Colts, under-19s, NZ Rugby Academy or national sevens sides.


"It is full-on, then I suppose that's what it's all about with these facilities," Lowen said in a break from fieldwork.


"We all knew we were going to have to work our butts off and I was really apprehensive about coming here. I had a few sleepless nights going over everything and wondering what was coming."


Lowen might have been even more anxious had he been greeted by the sight which confronted the Herald when it visited.


There in the indoor training area, which adjoins the main foyer, was former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick with his arm in a sling. This was the rugby icon, a man who eventually lost a long battle against a dodgy knee but seemed to suffer few other problems in a superb 92-test career.


Had he been dinged in his work as manager of the NZ Colts who were sharing the facility?


It turned out he had surgery to reattach a tendon in his shoulder after a training ground accident during the Super 12, but it was a sign of what was to come for the would-be boys in black.


Down time would be minimal, there would be lengthy mental and physical inquests.


Smith had not coached any players since the All Blacks finished their 2000 schedule in Genoa last December. He had been in regular contact with Super 12 coaches but his instructions to the players had not resumed until the May 20 announcement of those to go to the national training squad.


His suggestions about the training camp were simple, concise and powerful - front up or fall out.


There is a comfortable footy-feel about the adidas-emblazoned institute when you find your way to its setting behind Massey University. Looking from a nearby hill, it is possible to accept that the building's curved roof resembles the silver fern sporting symbol.


Underneath lie the indoor training areas, gym, conference rooms, administrative offices and several accommodation wings.


Enter the foyer and there is a huge photo of another former All Black skipper, Wayne Shelford, sandwiched between panes of glass.


Along the hall leading to the dining area, the walls are guarded by framed displays of rugby nostalgia, including the 1905 Originals, the country's oldest rugby club in Nelson, and collections of jerseys, ties, balls, shoulder pads, scrum caps and footwear from down the years.


The atmosphere is clean, almost soothing, but that can change if the players in the second-floor gym get into some speed work on the treadmills. Elsewhere, there is little noise from the indoor training area where the toughened glass deadens the sounds of ball versus window.


The players are in there for a late-morning computer session with Smith. They have been on the go since a 6.45 am wakeup, light breakfast and 5km run half an hour later.


The warnings are coming through after an opening day at the institute which started slowly but did not end until the group finished a physical workout in the early evening chill as the wind circled off the nearby Tararua mountain range.


Everyone had to concentrate, especially assistant manager Gilbert Enoka, who was in charge of video operations from his chilly post high in a cherry-picker.


Several players had arrived a little wounded but the worst report came about Christian Cullen. The freewheeling fullback was still complaining about a sore knee. Dr John Mayhew sent him for a scan. The result was not flash. Cullen had to have further surgery, he would miss the opening three tests and his 51-consecutive test stretch was over.


It was a sombre end to day one.


Day two, and the alarms broke the foggy stillness. The players knew they were in for a tough day. That was evident from the whiteboard in the teamroom.


Scheduled around the three meals approved by the team dietitian, there was the early run, skills sessions, media interviews, lectures on defence, another lengthy training run, a presentation from adidas, mugshots for television programming, then individual interviews with the coaching staff.


After their 5km run the players went into the soundproof indoor area where Smith, with a computer and projector, led them through a session about his All Black strategies, the style of game he wanted and how he would achieve his target.


It was basic, Rugby 101, as Smith went through the sequences of moves on the big screen, his audience attentive as they sat on the synthetic turf surface which has 25 tonnes of recycled rubber chip laid underneath.


A television and newspaper posse gathered on the foyer side of the glass window. Photographs were taken but it was unwise to report any of Smith's plans as his squad walked through their basic moves.


The media was tolerated but was also clearly an intruder.


The indoor session broke up, a group of players did some interview requests, new skipper Anton Oliver walked out on to the field to practise some lineout throws with the team biomechanist before children pestered him for his autograph.


Smith, Mayhew and Cullen sat down for an update and background chat about the fullback's knee injury, while Oliver, Jeff Wilson and Doug Howlett met a dentist who had brought some different mouthguards for them to try.


Lowen wandered through. He rated the setup.


"The rooms are better than some of the ones we have in hotels," he said. And from a bloke who is a good tooth man, how is the tucker? "Yeah, yeah, that's good too."


Recycled wing Wilson stopped to discuss the basketball spat between his mate Tab Baldwin and Waikato Titans' coach Jeff Green.


But the squad were keen to get into lunch and steal off to their rooms for an hour's rest before the afternoon's vigorous hitout on the fields.


Unusually, the players were wearing their Super 12 training gear rather than All Black practice jerseys as part of the "keep the heat on the players" policy.


None can be classified as All Blacks until Sunday's announcement of the 22 to play Samoa at Albany next Saturday.


Smith was clearly the boss as the squad went through handling and coordination drills, lineouts and scrums, attack and defence.


The hits had some of the spectators wincing. Up close, the collisions were more brutal than watching from the safety of a grandstand or couch.


The practice and tempo increased over the next few hours into the early darkness before they called it quits.


Next morning the run was exchanged for a strongman competition, including a pairs contest, won by Mark Cooksley and Troy Flavell, to push a four-wheel-drive vehicle half the length of a rugby field.


That was just to get them in the mood before breakfast. Then it was on to the skills work, lectures, more indoor walkthroughs, meetings and opposed trainings.


It was far more intensive than last year when the All Blacks used to return to the institute between tests. This season that schedule has been altered.


The test squad will travel to the domestic test venues, train there all week and only go to the institute for a five-day refresher course before they head to South Africa for the start of the Tri-Nations.