Rugby: All Blacks have right attitude for Lions challenge

All Blacks captain Kieran Read during the All Blacks training session. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Silence is supposedly golden. When it emanates from the All Blacks it is usually ominous - a sign they are tight, intense and in the right head space to be ruthless.

That's what happened prior to the World Cup final. Players were wheeled out to fulfil their media obligations and spoke without saying anything.

It was a masterclass in giving nothing away and it was entirely deliberate.

The All Blacks were determined they wouldn't give the Wallabies any emotional fuel. They didn't want one careless statement to give the Australians ammunition to feel aggrieved and slot into their preferred role of unfancied underdog.

The All Blacks also didn't want to give the Australian media any sniff of a sensational headline so it was clipped one liners from the players - statements that were extraordinarily bland and nothing but respectful.

The situation this week has been eerily similar. The All Blacks have fallen back into that same intense mode of being careful about what they say. Wary of giving something away that may help the Lions and that bodes well.

Head coach Steve Hansen says he's picked up on the vibes from the players.

He senses they are similarly excited as they were before the World Cup final but not, as he says "loose".

"I can feel the enthusiasm," he says. "There is a real hunger in the hotel with the players. They are really up for it. That doesn't guarantee that you will win the thing but it does guarantee that your attitude is right and we know that if we get our attitude right and our clarity is right then we are a good side."

The attitude part matters. It is the key to the All Blacks performing at their best. Look back across their poorest performances in the last few years and Hansen has blamed the same thing each time - having the wrong attitude.

They don't become bad players or poor decision makers in the space of one game. Think back to the draw in Sydney 2014, or to the loss last year against Ireland in Chicago and the problem was mindset.

The All Blacks were passive, reactive and guilty of sitting back and letting Australia and Ireland attack them in those two tests.

That to some extent explains why, almost without fail, on the few occasions the All Blacks haven't performed well, they have hit back hard the next week.

The difference, always, is attitude and the big goal that Hansen has set his players is to be able to have the required intensity and focus without the need to suffer a loss to find it.

The enormity of the occasion this Saturday should be enough in itself he believes to drive the players into the right head space.

The bigger the challenge the better this All Blacks side tends to respond. They live for the chance to shine when the world is watching.

The Lions only come every 12 years and the All Blacks have studied the history of the composite team. They have looked back to previous tours to see what they can learn and to respect the tradition and standing of their opponents and what a Lions tour has meant for New Zealand rugby.

Their cold, hard demeanour says they have worked out that that a Lions tour means plenty and exactly the sort of occasion where they need to have their attitude spot on.