Secret camp tells of All Black future

The backdrop lighting at Auckland's Heritage Hotel gives Anton Oliver a sci-fi look yesterday. Picture / Brett Phibbs

When Andrew Hore and Jimmy Cowan were invited to a secret training camp last week, it was the equivalent of a nod and a wink from the All Black selectors.

The duo joined others whose Wellington, Waikato and Taranaki sides failed to make the NPC playoffs for training, skills and fitness drills to keep them in nick for the attempted Grand Slam tour.

It was the private salute before the public anointment in the 35-strong squad to tour Wales, Ireland, England and Scotland.

Hore and Cowan spoke yesterday about their fears that misdemeanours this season might have counted against those All Black recalls.

In contrast, Anton Oliver was in full voice after coach Graham Henry signalled to him mid-year that he wanted him through to the next World Cup.

Hore was convicted and fined for shooting a protected fur seal this year, and Cowan was sent home from the New Zealand Juniors tour of Australia for indiscipline.

"I was lucky to get a second chance," said Hore. "It was a very tough time. Obviously I let people down, and hopefully I will keep out of the courthouse and play a bit of footy."

Hore acknowledged his reprieve had been helped by Derren Witcombe's tour-ending neck injury and by his hardworking Taranaki provincial colleagues. Taranaki finished ninth and Otago second in the NPC, and they both had the same All Black representation.

Cowan's concern that his expulsion from the Juniors tour for a drink-related incident would count against All Black selection was allayed when he joined the training camp last week.

He admitted he lost his way in the Super 12 after making the tour to Europe last year but had worked hard on his kicking, passing and leadership in the NPC since his early return from Australia.

For Oliver, it has been one of the strangest years of his rugby career.

Originally he wanted to make the All Blacks for the Lions series and then quit.

But he regained his love of rugby in the Super 12 and was told by Henry he was well in the frame for the 2007 World Cup.

Those visions were then cut down by his serious calf injury.

However, Oliver's intentions were clear: He wanted to shoot for the next World Cup because he felt something special was evolving with the current All Black group.

"You are all in your own little cocoon when you go on tour, and I love that," he said.

"We are an isolated band of brothers off fighting the infidels."

The coaches had concluded it was impossible for the same XV to play a succession of tests, and Oliver concurred with that philosophy.

"What the All Blacks did in '96 with the same XV when we were in Africa, that was a massive feat, and while they had 36 players there, essentially it was the same XV churned out four tests in a row and in fact the fourth one was one too far," he said. "It is a not a physical thing. It is utterly mental.

"Whatever is best for the team - that is the evolution I have come across," Oliver said of the reduced roster facing every All Black on tour.

Having won his place, lost it, regained it and lost it during his 44- test career, Oliver found it easy to accept what was best for the team.

The seasoned hooker admired the way the All Blacks coaches were developing the breadth of leadership throughout the team so it did not all fall on captain Tana Umaga or the head coach.

"That was the old model, and they sort of carried the burden of the nation," he said.

The key difference now was that those responsibilities had been spread. There was far greater inclusive, fluid interaction between the coaches and players.

"We are out there playing and we are giving everything we can to the team, so it makes logical sense to say how you want it to run, what you are thinking and feeling in an open forum."

* Ali Williams and Luke McAlister have joined prop Greg Somerville as injury concerns for the tour. All three missed the bulk of training yesterday as their injuries were assessed. Williams has a shoulder problem and McAlister has ankle and knee worries.