Making light of strain on the high veld

Leon MacDonald says his kicks will travel farther. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Playing on the high veld. That and local referees were always hoary rugby topics in South Africa. "Wait until we get you at Ellis Park or Loftus," was a torment South Africans used to direct at the All Blacks.

The taunts did not change after isolation when the All Blacks returned to play in 1992. The sight of All Black lock Mark Cooksley, with his nose starting to course blood during a work-out at altitude, was enough to reinforce the horror tales of previous tours.

It was still an issue when the All Blacks returned for the 1995 World Cup and their historic series win a year later, but both sides had sufficient time to acclimatise.

Since then, Super rugby has meant players are well tuned to the effects of playing at altitude and less likely to be spooked by it.

That does not mean they find playing at 1370m above sea level, as the All Blacks will in Pretoria on Sunday, any easier.

This year, because of the expanded Tri-Nations series and the two tests at altitude, the All Blacks decided to base themselves up high. For one-off tests on the high veld in the past, they have stayed at sea level and flown up the day before the match.

"We know it would take at least 10 days to acclimatise so, when you have less than a week, you have two options," team doctor Deb Robinson said. "You either come to altitude and live with the cons, or you go down to sea level and fly up the day before.

"The cons are you have altitude impacts at training like dry mouth and [being] short of breath. We have twin effects of post-travel and altitude."

Common sense for one game on the veld was to prepare at sea level but, with two matches, the All Blacks thought they would avoid the extra travel and reap the rewards next week.

Coach Graham Henry acknowledged the merits and drawbacks of each theory. "I prefer to come up here and stay so that we get accustomed to it and there is no travel close to the game," he said.

"The last time I was involved with a franchise [the Blues in 2003], we did that and it was successful, but I think it is a wee bit of a 50-50 really. So we are just trying it this way this time."

Players had a range of ideas about rugby on the high veld. The sole survivor of the 1996 tour of South Africa, hooker Anton Oliver, thought he suffered most on days six, seven and eight when he was at altitude - and he always knew the first and last quarters of a match were very taxing.

"If we stay here, we might take a bit of a hit in the first week but the guys playing the second test will be fully acclimatised, so it is a bit of a trade-off," he said.

"If you ever wanted to beat an All Black team, it would have been Monday [after flying into Johannesburg the previous day] this week," he laughed. "We were trying to run around but were like old boards."

This week was all about recovering from the travel, getting some sleep, light exercise, some strong planning - and saving energy for Loftus Versfeld.

"Every time I've played here I have noticed what the altitude does to you, but everyone is different."

LEON MacDonald had only stayed at altitude once before, with the Crusaders, and did not find much difference coping with the game.

"A lot of it is mental, I think. It is like telling yourself you are cold and you feel cold. We don't talk about it at all any more; we used to talk about it too much and it became an issue.

"Now we talk more about the effects on kicks and how far they travel. You definitely feel it on your lungs but we try and ignore that, otherwise it snowballs and plagues your mind."

It was probably no tougher than playing an early afternoon game in the heat of New Zealand, said MacDonald.

Former skipper Reuben Thorne made his debut in 1999 from the bench at Pretoria after the team had stayed for a week at altitude near Sun City.

"It is just a mental thing and I tend not to think about it and don't acknowledge it is a problem and treat the game as just a normal game of footy," he said.

"All the guys here have experienced playing at high level in South Africa. It's less of an issue."

The only time he noticed any impact was on a really hot day for a game on the high veld. Otherwise, he enjoyed the conditions and the confrontation with the Springboks.