The All Blacks sing the national anthem ahead of the quarter-final against Ireland. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The All Blacks sing the national anthem ahead of the quarter-final against Ireland. Photo / Mark Mitchell
COMMENT:
Less than 24 hours after the All Blacks lost to England in their World Cup semifinal, a defeat which destroyed the defending champions' dream of winning the Webb Ellis trophy for a third straight time, coach Steve Hansen and senior players Kieran Read, Beauden Barrett and Sam Whitelock wereback to face the press.
A day after that, assistant coach Ian Foster and senior players Sam Cane and Sonny Bill Williams faced the music.
Say what you like about the way they played at Yokohama Stadium during the 19-7 loss, but rarely has an All Black team coped so honourably and maturely with a World Cup disappointment (the only blip Hansen's overly blunt invitation to "educate" a reporter in the immediate aftermath).
There was no bitterness as they were asked to discuss their feelings and, yes, failure; just honesty and openness and vulnerability.
After the match, coach Graham Henry and skipper Richie McCaw attended the press conference. In the "mixed zone" afterwards, where players talk in a more informal setting, only Byron Kelleher and Anton Oliver were available.
A similar attitude applied to Ireland after their quarter-final defeat to the All Blacks at Tokyo a week and a half ago.
All Blacks captain Kieran Read, Beauden Barrett and Sam Whitelock all fronted the media after the England defeat. Photo / Mark Mitchell
They couldn't get home fast enough and so a day later there was no time to talk to the Irish journalists whose employers had invested a lot of money to get them here, an attitude that wouldn't have helped the mood at home and was perhaps reflected in the coverage. "Toothless" and "Abysmal", read the headlines.
On the whole in Japan, the All Blacks have treated the media with respect and have sent the right message to their players and nation as a whole that Friday night's bronze playoff match against Wales is something worthwhile – a chance even for "redemption", according to Foster.
Several Kiwi media organisations are pulling back on their coverage in the wake of last Saturday's loss, however, including the television networks, a policy apparently not followed by publicly-funded BBC Scotland journalists in the wake of the Scots' failure to qualify for a quarter-final.
That in itself may not necessarily raise an eyebrow but a rival Scottish media organisation's response to the news did; a reporter on the ground in Tokyo wrote a story highlighting what the newspaper thought was a waste of taxpayer's money, a stance which prompted a flurry of Whatsapp messages among the Scots including an invitation to settle matters the old-fashioned way.
Tribal rivalries apart, for those lucky enough to report on the World Cup for the last six-and-a-bit weeks, this tournament has been an experience few will forget.
Take away the vast numbers of everything here – people, cars, vending machines, restaurants - it's the Japanese people who have made it special, and not only because of the way they have supported the host nation's remarkable run to the quarter-finals for the first time.
Tokyo can be a daunting city. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Tokyo, in particular, has the potential be a daunting city because of its intensity but, talking from a personal perspective, I have never felt safer in a big city anywhere including Auckland.
Politeness, patience, respect and honour seemed somehow stitched into the fabric of the Japanese DNA.
If the All Blacks achieved anything here apart from their remarkable performance against Ireland and to a slightly lesser extent South Africa in their first match, it is that the players in particular incorporated a little bit of that into their own behaviour.
