KEY POINTS:
There is, according to Blues conditioning coach Mark Harvey, pressure on the reconditioning All Blacks from their Super 14 team-mates.
Some franchises train their All Blacks separately from their Super 14 team, at different venues. Others, like the Blues, have them training at the same venue but separately.
"We didn't want to separate them totally," says Harvey. "They are still part of the Blues and we have all been very up-front about what is going on. We understand perfectly what the All Black coaches and management are trying to do - but we have made this as something of an investment for us too.
"The four guys being reconditioned are in no doubt there is an expectation that they will be fit and firing, in their best shape, to play for the Blues."
Training alongside the Super 14 team lessens the degree of separation and increases the team bond. It also works for those in the Super 14 team who are likely to have to move aside when the All Blacks come back. Without that 'teamness', says Harvey, some players might feel 'why am I training hard? I'm only going to be shifted out when they come back.'
Keven Mealamu has a slightly different perspective. He confesses to some frustration watching the Super 14 team prepare for Friday's first game against the Crusaders.
"It's a big game, the sort of game you like to play in," he says. "But we can't play, we can't input to it, we can't influence things and that's a bit frustrating." If that sounds like a complaint, it should be balanced by the fact that this is all delivered with Mealamu's ever-present broad grin.
He agrees that training alongside his team-mates also makes him want to play for the Blues. While you'd hardly expect a current All Black to say anything else, it is clear he believes the reconditioning is effective, even if he has departed from the script again by straining a hamstring.
"It's really good," he said. "It's hard work and it's definitely no holiday. When we get up to five sessions a day, it can get pretty hard.
"But I have to say that it is good doing some pre-season work.
"Usually, what happens is that we have a break from rugby and then we are straight back into rugby, the whole big cycle - so this is the first time for years I have been able to build up.
"I understand the idea of it and I am up for anything that is going to make me a more effective player."
It's clear, too, that he has relished the mental freshening brought about by a change of routine. "Mental rest is the biggest thing. The physical side of the game is huge and we are working towards that and there is a lot of running but also a lot of fun stuff."
The only slight bugbear is that, when there are four or five sessions a day, Mealamu and Tony Woodcock, who live a long way from town, usually hang around the training ground for the next session.
The programme means Mealamu has more time at home - he says his wife has enjoyed making him a huge 'To Do' list of all the chores he hasn't had time to do before - and the balance of all these elements seems to be working for him.
"For sure, it feels better," he says. "Look, in the end, this is such a massive year for New Zealand rugby that all of us are thinking that anything we can do to prepare better, to sharpen ourselves up, and get us to our goal has to be good for us."
