KEY POINTS:
First-class travel, luxury hotels, free guitars ... our World Cup All Blacks are being pampered right down to their personally embroidered airline blankets.
The All Blacks arrived in Corsica on Friday night to join their four-and-a-half tonnes of baggage. In each All Black's luggage you will find:
A selection of adidas casual and training gear (adidas also gave the players a customised guitar);
* Cufflinks courtesy of Steinlager;
* Philips headphones;
* A free cellphone courtesy of Telecom.
Plus they are flown in Air New Zealand's Business Premier seats, which recline into full-length beds, and are staying in some of France's grandest hotels.
Not that they'll be sleeping much - well, this weekend anyway.
A no-snooze policy has been introduced to stop players from taking afternoon naps during their two days in Corsica this weekend, the last real R 'n R before the team wings its way to Marseille and the start of their campaign against Italy next Saturday night.
"We don't want them retiring to their rooms, that is when we need them out soaking up the sun, which helps recovery from jetlag," manager Darren Shand said.
The policy was being strictly policed, with senior players on the alert for anyone even thinking of taking an afternoon siesta.
The freebies and pampering are all a bit mindboggling for All Blacks from the amateur era. "We certainly didn't get a guitar," said Richard Loe, who travelled to the 1991 and 1995 World Cups.
The Herald on Sunday columnist, who will take a tour group to France for the quarter-finals onwards, said the highlight of their 1991 World Cup odyssey to Britain was a free monkey suit to wear to the end-of-tournament dinner.
"But Zinzan Brooke was in charge of the entertainment committee. After the Lille game [the quarter-final against Canada, won 29-13] he got us dressed up to take us on a mystery dinner."
Those who thought they were being taken to a country chateau were disappointed. "We were dropped off at McDonald's," Loe said.
Guitars? Well, Michael Jones was known to pull out an acoustic and lead the boys on a song, but this squad will bring new meaning to 10 Guitars, a long-time All Black favourite inexplicably missing from their recently released CD.
As for the long-haul travel in 1991, first-class and business-class cabins were seen only by NZRU officials. "We were shoved in cattle class and we were ticketed alphabetically," said Loe. "Poor Terry Wright was always jammed between the Whetton brothers, and I had big Blair Larsen next to me."
It helps having the national carrier as one of your principal sponsors, not least because each member of the touring party gets the maximum baggage allowance. Air New Zealand also gave the players a personally embroidered blanket. "We have sent about two-and-a-half tonnes of equipment over there already," Shand said.
"That's just jerseys, supplements, some New Zealand foods and the gear we train with. All in all, we have about four-and-a half-tonnes of luggage."
To put it into some perspective, the weight of the luggage is equivalent to 54 Nick Evans standing on each other's shoulders.
And the All Blacks will not be wanting for kit. "There is a whole range of training apparel and equipment and there is a fair range of casual kit too, and the footwear and the boots," Shand said.
"It is up to them what they take but we do ask them to wear adidas in their casual time as they have a big relationship with the team and it's important we support them. Philips have given us some headphones. Steinlager some cufflinks. adidas have given the players a personalised guitar. Telecom have provided phones."
They won't be slumming it, either. The squad will be accommodated in a luxury Palm Beach hotel, tucked beneath the beachfront promenade in gritty Marseille's most salubrious suburb.
The hotel is set into a cliff wall that protects its stunning coastline, and every All Black will have an unfettered view of the Mediterranean and the island where The Count of Monte Cristo was set.
In Aix-en-Provence they will rest their heads on pillows at Le Pigonnet, a grand complex set behind imposing gates.
In Corsica, the team has occupied a luxury getaway retreat on a secluded peninsula and have been enjoying yachting and biking.
About half the squad braved choppy swells in two America's Cup-type tender boats to journey across the gulf from their hotel to the nearest major town of Ajaccio.
The rest took less stomach-rumbling options of walking or biking around the roads.
Shand has drawn the line at any All Blacks trying paragliding. "It is all about being careful," Shand said. "We have been training so long we are not going to blow it by doing something silly."
- Additional reporting, Wynne Gray
