KEY POINTS:
Assistant coach Wayne Smith still carries a "hole in his gut" from the last World Cup failure. He is not sure if it will ever recede but the revamped All Blacks can help mollify that downfall by pushing ahead against England tomorrow.
They were improving after the short
buildup against Ireland, they showed they could cope with the demands of test rugby but this first of two tests against England was another start, another beginning. Smith always felt like that. He was rarely comfortable, always nervous about doing justice to the job.
The last group of All Blacks had an enormous number of caps, they had a great deal of experience, "but we are starting again, there is a bit of nervousness and some discomfort about how it is going to go".
Expectation was always high for the All Blacks from the public and within the camp.
"But I have always thought that you earn your respect, you earn your support and you do that week by week," Smith said.
"You can't do it one week and then expect to have it the next so nothing has changed there except there is the massive disappointment over the last year and I understand that. But you can't do any more than work hard, do your best, be proud, show your respect, and get on with it and that is what we are intending to do."
Smith would like England to buy into the concept of attacking, flowing rugby for the sake of the code. If not, that was fine but he felt England had shown quite a degree of accurate backplay during the Six Nations, especially against Ireland.
"They don't give the ball away easily and execute pretty accurately and we measure the effectiveness of teams within their units and they came through pretty well," Smith said.
While those combinations were cut for tomorrow's test at Eden Park, Smith felt plenty of work had been done on backplay throughout the UK. It was a fallacy those players could not produce attacking rugby.
"You have got to respect the ability, it is how they want to play," Smith added.
As much as Smith wanted to provoke England he thought they would revert to type for the test, they would try and conquer the All Blacks and take the test through their forwards.
"I assume so listening to Rob's [Andrew] comments, I mean he has stated quite plainly that is what you have to do against the All Blacks if you want to beat them. I am sure they will have a crack, they have got two pivots in Barkley and Hodgson who are good tactical kickers, one a left footer one a right footer ... so I am sure they will use that," said Smith.
If tomorrow night is fine, Smith felt the near capacity crowd and the teams would appreciate a match where they brought an attacking attitude.
Victory would be a boost for the All Blacks and the management. Smith would always carry the pain from the World Cup defeat at Cardiff. "It will never go away but I have to get on with my life and do this job well. I can separate myself from it but it will always be there and I can't put it right."
But many in this squad were not involved at the World Cup. They are the players who have been invested in and the coaching staff have to work hard to carry them all forward.
