KEY POINTS:
They are not hard to miss. At every airport around the globe a lineup of corporate drivers holding up name cards of passengers with whom they need to liaise.
Usually the clients are execs, who are whisked from the plane to their meetings or hotel in the air-conditioned
comfort of a chauffeur-driven car. It is standard practice.
Companies who demand high performance from their chief execs and staff give them the best conditions to help that happen. Business or first-class air travel, comfortable hotels, time to rest and recuperate.
Sound familiar? Sounds like the All Blacks and their schedule at this World Cup. Like the frontliners in any company, the squad have been given quality conditions in which to pursue their goals.
In exchange, their New Zealand Rugby Union employers have made their priority this season the capture of the Webb Ellis Cup after 20 years.
Seems a sensible arrangement, solid work practice.
Forget, for now, the rights or wrongs of that decision and its impact on the rugby landscape. Once the NZRU approved the 2007 target in France, they have afforded the All Blacks as much help as they can within the restrictions laid down by RWC officials.
But all we seem to hear on this side of the world is the bleating from New Zealand about how pampered the All Blacks are and the levels of indulgence bestowed upon them.
Maybe it is the fault of the media who are travelling around or near the squad and are sending stories, sound bites or pictures back to New Zealand with that slant.
Or is it those back home who cannot bear to see the All Blacks having some time off, who have all sorts of flashbacks to 1999 and the ill-conceived mid-tournament holiday in the south of France?
Maybe it's a case of the green-eyed monster out of control?
It is almost as if those watching from afar think the All Blacks should be training every second of the day because they are earning such vast amounts of money. They are aghast that the squad and, God help us, their WAGS, can disperse for several days into the French countryside.
But these are probably the same people who think Helen Clark should travel cattle class to Apec meetings and sleep at the youth hostel, people who want results but are not prepared to give the All Blacks optimum conditions in which to prosper.
Chief executives work hard, extremely hard but there are few who undergo the rigours of a 57-day offshore campaign that the All Blacks hope to complete at this World Cup.
It is an unnatural experience. So management are trying to make it as comfortable and normal as possible.
RWC picks up standard travel, hotel and food bills for a squad of 30 players and 18 officials throughout the tournament and, the Herald understands, paid for the bulk of the initial R and R stop in Corsica.
The NZRU and their sponsor partners have topped that up by placing the side in business class for their long-haul travel, arranging the charter flights involving trips to Scotland and Wales, paying for extra staff on the trip and providing cellphones.
WAGS were encouraged to be with their partners for three days this week, the coaches even managed to get away from their work and the hotel in Aix-en-Provence to be with their families on the Mediterranean coast.
"Time off. How dare they?", seemed to be the thunderous tone from New Zealand. What a load of cobblers.
On duty, these All Blacks have worked extremely hard. Apart from the damage to Keith Robinson, Mils Muliaina, and Leon MacDonald, these All Blacks are in supreme physical shape.
There is no point flogging them more, making them punch the training ground clock to justify their wages. They had little respite in their first four weeks, they have trained much harder than they would in a similar time frame at home.
They lack matchplay but that was a result of a deliberate selection and conditioning strategy by the coaches who knew well in advance the problems of the side's weak World Cup pool.
Only the coaching staff and players know what shape the All Blacks are in mentally.
That will be the major handbrake on their trip to the playoffs. If the players feel they are underdone, that anxiety will show out in their play.
If, as Ali Williams suggests, they will time their run for the Cardiff quarter-final, then having their attitude right is the next target.
Top executives do not work eight weeks straight without a break. They need time off, they need to unwind with their families or by the beach or out on the golf course.
A stale mind is the disease of the vanquished. The All Blacks need time to do whatever spins their mental wheels in their downtime. It could be reading a book by the pool, bicycling, picking grapes at a secluded vineyard, going to a retreat in the Alps, playing golf or going to a fast-food joint.
All that matters is that when the All Blacks returned to camp, they were all itching to play again, they had a raft of tales to share with their mates, and that they were refreshed.
