KEY POINTS:
The drills have been done, the training complete, the skills honed - but the All Blacks have never faced the mayhem they expected to encounter in this morning's test match in Lyon.
Pre-game, the All Blacks said they felt ill-equipped to handle the expected pandemonium from a partisan
48,000 crowd at the Stade de Gerland. Only Anton Oliver, at Marseille in 2000, had experienced the mayhem rugby crowds could generate in the south of France.
Assistant coach Wayne Smith had told them about the Marseille chaos and how his side had suffered.
"We don't know what to expect really," coach Graham Henry said. "As long as we visit the ground prior to the game and the guys get a feel for it. It is a soccer stadium, a football stadium and I would imagine the crowd is fairly close to the pitch and they need to get accustomed to that."
Plans to visit the ground yesterday were scuppered, as Lyon played a national league football match. The All Blacks were to do their reconnaissance earlier today.
Henry tried to play down those logistical flaws but the warning lights had flashed about the 2000 chaos.
"They [the 2000 All Blacks] got a hell of a shock when the game was played because of the ferocity, if that's the right word, the excitement and the support of the French side by the people of Marseille.
"He [Smith] said it was unbelievable. They had never experienced anything of that nature before. So I guess our guys need to know about those things and we'll discuss them when we go to the ground.
"It is easy to talk about them but you don't really know until you go through the experience I guess."
At Marseille, cannons were fired, fires lit, drums beaten throughout, and there was relentless whistling, chanting and singing. Cockerels were let loose on the field and the rolling noise was hugely disconcerting.
The late start to the Lyon test was an added complication, though captain Richie McCaw said the team had tried to go to bed later.
Locks Ali Williams and James Ryan trained well but are in a very competitive group angling for test berths. Manhattan's skyline beckons Ryan after this tour when he spends a few days in New York, and he was one of the skytowers who needed to find instant lineout rapport today with Oliver.
In the anticipated hubbub, that could create issues for the quicker delivery coach Steve Hansen has demanded from his lineout troops.
If Oliver or his targets are spooked by the cacophony there is potential for trouble.
Teams
New Zealand: Leon MacDonald, Joe Rokocoko, Conrad Smith, Luke McAlister, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Dan Carter, Piri Weepu; Tony Woodcock, Anton Oliver, Carl Hayman, Ali Williams, James Ryan, Jerry Collins, Richie McCaw (captain), Rodney So'oialo. Replacements: Keven Mealamu, Neemia Tialata, Jason Eaton, Chris Masoe, Byron Kelleher, Ma'a Nonu, Mils Muliaina.
France: Julien Laharrague, Aurelien Rougerie, Florian Fritz, Yannick Jauzion, Christophe Dominici, Damien Traille, Dimitri Yachvili; Sylvain Marconnet, Dimitri Swarzewski, Pieter De Villiers, Fabien Pelous (captain), Pascal Pape, Thierry Dusautoir, Julien Bonnaire, Elvis Vermeulen. Replacements: Raphael Ibanez, Olivier Milloud, Lionel Nallet, Remy Martin, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, David Marty, Cedric Heymans.
