Ever the realist, Grant Fox does not view the past with misty-eyed romanticism.
Fox was the points-scoring machine in the All Blacks side who won their only World Cup to date, in 1987.
A pragmatic first five-eighth with no frills, Fox kicked 17 of New Zealand's 29 points
in the final against France and totalled 645 in his international career.
The 1987 team led by David Kirk were a fine side. Over the next two years under Wayne Shelford they touched greatness.
How, Fox was asked, would they have fared against modern day professional teams?
"They'd belt us," Fox said without hesitation. "I saw some video clips recently in New Zealand of us playing in the World Cup final and we were small and we were skinny and we had those awful shorts that were so high, it was embarrassing to watch.
"In our era we were a pretty useful side. But if we took us as athletes then and the way the game was played then, and put us up against these guys they would kill us. They're bigger, stronger, faster, fitter."
Comparisons over the decades with the vast changes in diet, equipment and training are meaningless in most sports and particularly so in rugby which was still an amateur game in Fox's day.
Fox instanced Bert Cooke ( "nine stone wringing wet" or about 57kg), the electric centre in the 1924 side, and Colin Meads as players who would be outstanding in any era.
"Colin Meads would be a great player today. But he would play six, he wouldn't be tall enough for a lock now although in his day he was huge," Fox said.
The Berlin Wall was still standing when New Zealand last won the World Cup and Ronald Reagan was President of the United States. Did Fox think on June 20, 1987, that his nation would still be waiting for a second trophy 20 years later?
"If I was brutally honest, no," he replied. "In New Zealand the public are desperate for it, of course. In a funny way they're almost more desperate than the players.
"There will be a lot of relieved people in New Zealand if we succeed this time around. If not? It will just be four more years."
- Reuters
