KEY POINTS:
For such a controversial issue, the reconditioning of Auckland's All Blacks is a quiet, almost somnolent, affair. Ali Williams, Tony Woodcock, Joe Rokocoko and Keven Mealamu roll up for their 9.30am session, wearing the expressions of nearly all rugby players when contemplating training - a cross between 'here
we go again' and 'let's do this'.
It's a hot morning at the Blues' Unitec training ground and, as their handlers march about preparing the session by placing cones here, weights there and flashing lights over yonder, it is impossible not to contemplate how different this would be if it was an American football team in the US.
Remove four of the best footballers in the land for reconditioning in the NFL and the stadium would be full of coaches, trainers, medical staff, technicians, data gatherers and analysts, spectators, hangers-on, cameras and media. It'd be a circus. Here, there are just the All Blacks, a couple of trainers and us - plus a curious look from the city council man testing his trimmer for an assault on some unsuspecting weeds nearby.
The four All Blacks are part of Graham Henry's infamous 22 excused from the early rounds of the Super 14 for reconditioning and rehabilitation. The move excited much comment and criticism when first announced, although much of New Zealand has settled back into the comfort of Henry's massively positive win record thus far and has lapsed into the mode of: "Oh, well, if it helps us win the World Cup..."
However, one perception which has seeped through the fans - and some non-All Black players - is that reconditioning and rehabilitation are synonyms for another "r" word: rest. In other words, a decent slice of the land thinks the All Blacks are having a wee holiday.
That's why we are here - to track what a reconditioner actually does. We know the theory - that playing rugby all the time plateaus athletic ability and a reconditioning "window" allows an individual to build up to a higher athletic plane; allowing the player to raise his base of strength, speed and flexibility and to guard against injury.
But, strip away the corporate-speak and the physio-babble and how do these guys actually do that?
We are supposed to be focusing on the amiable Mealamu but there's a hitch. He's pinged a hamstring and is minding what he does right now.
So, in the midst of all this controversy, under the banner of professionalism, the bright lights of international sport and the intense media spotlight (well, me and photographer Sandra Mu anyway) - not to mention the enormous advances in sports physiology and techniques - how does Keven Mealamu start his innovative, hi-tech reconditioning?
He jogs round the field. Millions of rugby players, including those in the most isolated, unsophisticated rugby clubs in the country, do this at the start of every training session. It is a rugby cliche, detested by many players for its sheer, boring repetitiveness.
But it's all because of the Mealamu hammie and the fact that the Blues All Blacks are having a comparatively light load this particular day. They are in a lower cycle of their programme right now and ramp things up to a higher pitch on other days.
The four are soon under way, put through their paces by Blues head reconditioning coach Mark Harvey and assistant Byron Thomas. They warm up by stepping and jumping through hoops laid on the ground.
Next is one of only two drills involving a rugby ball - two of the four pass the ball to each other in a confined space with the other two trying to intercept or upset. If the ball is spilled or caught by the opposition, the defenders become the attackers.
Then variation - the attackers try to score over a goal line in a lateral movement by outpassing the defence. During these two exercises with the ball, there's a hint of what makes the All Blacks great and what makes the New Zealand rugby player a different animal.
They are animated during these simple passing exercises. It's become a game and, while most of us would figure that the professional rugby player would be long bored with such simple pleasures, the whoops, hoots and laughter of the four says the opposite.
It's a reminder that almost every All Black has his career generated through the love of the game; the simple pleasure of chasing a ball on the field of a school somewhere; the idle minutes of 'playtime' filled by using someone's shoes and socks as a goal line in a game of touch, reluctantly abandoned only when the bell sounds (and sometimes not even then...).
The All Blacks do more stretching exercises - mock hurdling and lunges - and then are smartly into the next drill. Thomas has set up a small forest of poles about 1m high with a flashing light on them. They are each assigned a different colour light. They have to be on the move but must have the mental agility and flexibility to sprint around the pole flashing their colour - with the handlers deliberately changing the colours.
There is only one collision of any note between the 440kg-plus of human beef hurtling around the poles. There is more laughter.
Then it's off to the hardest 'grunt' work of the morning. Rokocoko has to pull a large weight on the ground backwards - which he does by raising his arms over his head while holding a long strap attached to the weight.
Woodcock is carrying four big weights - it looks about 80kg in total - in special cradles in either hand, his cramped progress reminiscent of a man at the airport carrying his wife's over-packed suitcases and swearing softly under his breath.
Williams has the hardest task - a 4m heavy log like a Scotsman's caber, which he has to hoist up on its end, push over and repeat the process four or five times, before dragging it back to the start line and beginning again. After a while, they swap.
Mealamu does some of these but mostly does the lonely trail around the field. They produce a softball bat, ball and a cricket stump and take turns flogging the ball deep into the field where one of their number has to hare after it and throw it back in.
Williams shows his natural athleticism by hitting the ball a mile and, when fielding, his return throw demonstrably clears those at the stump. Quick, someone give him a Black Caps contract. Then it's an hour gone and they finish up with windsprints - another traditional and much disliked (but highly beneficial) rugby exercise.
HOLIDAY? PLEASE... Harvey makes the point that, while he knows some people think the All Blacks are lazing it up, these guys are doing this up to five times a day.
You read that right. A day. They usually have weekends off but their Monday to Friday is spent doing what we have just been observing, only more of it and at a higher level of intensity.
Five sessions a day can include athletic and conditioning work; interval training, weights sessions; stretch pilates; boxing; massage and other activities to meet individual programme needs.
If a massage sounds like something on the beach at Bali, it's all part of the careful balance built into the programme loosely controlled by All Black strength and conditioning coach Graham Lowe and carried out by people like Harvey at franchise level.
"I can see that some people might see massage as a soft exercise," says Lowe, "but we aren't insisting they have massages because we want them to have a lie down. They are doing a lot of hard work and the massage is designed to get them right for the next load of hard work."
Lowe makes the point that this kind of reconditioning programme is an integral part of the NFL season where clubs would not dream of turning their players out for the season without conditioning them first - ensuring they are better equipped, with a higher physical and mental base, to see out a season and lessen injury.
Pilates might also sound a soft option but is not easy and is a proven way to build 'long' muscles, strength, flexibility and endurance - and lessen injury.
"What the All Blacks are doing is clever," says Harvey. "It's working to a player's needs, building up that base so they can perform at a higher level for longer."
Individuals are assessed at the beginning and assigned tasks to build up in areas lacking - whether that be speed, flexibility or strength.
"Keven is so strong on the field," says Harvey of Mealamu's trademark low-body-position, break-the-tackle style. "We are just working on his individual needs to help improve that and other parts of his game."
It's working. Lowe says Mealamu has already hit personal bests in his strength programme and in the weights room.
"That is after two-and-a-half weeks, that's all - and he is already doing better than he's ever done."
Progress is monitored when the All Blacks go into camps - like the one in Christchurch on Thursday - to make sure individual goals are being hit. Lowe says, after Thursday, that he and All Black management are impressed with the players' progress and attitudes. But, as with all matters rugby these days, the whole issue is suborned by the World Cup.
Win it and Henry, Lowe and co will be up for the Nobel Prize for Sport.
Don't win it and maybe the backlash will see reconditioning filed next to past sporting trends, like the tug of war and hula hoop.
Recon Reckoner
Who: Ali Williams, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock, Joe Rokocoko.
How: Between two to five sessions a day of conditioning work aimed at building speed, strength, flexibility and endurance.
When: Monday to Friday (plus some Saturdays).
Where: Blues training ground.
What: Activities vary between sprints, ball drills, various speed and reflex drills, strength programmes, weights sessions, hill repeats, softball, Pilates, boxing, massage and more.
Why: To ensure players are equipped to perform better. Oh, and to win that World Cup thingy.
