The Increasing Polynesian influence on All Black culture has led one veteran to describe the atmosphere in the team as the best it has ever been.
Hooker Anton Oliver, who played his 57th test in a 10-year international career last night, said the "family" culture of the Polynesians
meant some of the more macho All Black rituals had disappeared, including the rookies getting "the bash" on the bus.
As a proud resident of the back seat Oliver said that tradition had gone.
"We just don't do that any more. The team's not divided like that any more," he said. "When I first started you couldn't substitute. So there was a fifteen and there was a seven. They didn't mix together and they didn't train together.
"Now you have to be inclusive. The Polynesian culture has become a big part of the All Black culture and that's very family orientated. You're away for seven weeks and you have this big conflagration, and everyone has a dust-up? We don't want to be doing that - we're trying to work together not against each other."
In terms of the evolution of the All Black culture, Oliver said there was only one aspect of the past he felt was missing to the team's detriment: the ability to get on the case of a poor performer at training.
"In the past the boys were harder on each other on the field at training, which I kind of liked. If you didn't do something right, you got it," he said.
"What's happened now is that we spend so much time together and we're so much at ease with each other that we've become really close mates, and it's difficult to say to your best mate, 'hey, that was a crap pass'.
"The peer pressure, I believe, is the biggest thing that influences a team. If a team gets a lot of peer pressure going it's far more powerful than a coach saying you've got to do this, you've got to do that, because that's coming from above, from externally almost. But if we start influencing each other and it comes from within, that's really strong.
"That's probably the one thing I'd like to see us do more of."
