KEY POINTS:
Boot camps are passé, certainly for the All Blacks. They remain in vogue for the Springboks, Wallabies and Tricolores who have undergone commando training to augment their World Cup preparations.
The All Blacks believe they can generate that soul in other ways, that they can develop team backbone themselves rather than searching for outside assistance.
They begin the last piece of the jigsaw this coming week in Auckland, with the second of two camps to complete the details and planning for the World Cup expedition, the pursuit of rugby's Holy Grail, which has eluded the past four All Black overseas missions.
"Our key objective has been to make sure everyone is ready for what will be a huge campaign," manager Darren Shand said.
"We could be away for 57 days and that is huge. So we had to work the balance of ticking all the boxes and giving the players plenty of time at home before we head out."
Coach Graham Henry admitted he had been twitchy about how the squad would react to their trip to England, France and Wales late last year.
He had been worried about how some players would cope with being away from home for so long.
"The old guys loved being away on tour for three months, but these younger ones do not have that sort of experience; they are seldom away for more than four weeks at a time and these things are a challenge," he said.
"Some of them can get homesick and then their play can reflect how they feel about themselves. But last year's tour was marvellous.
"So it is all about finding the right balance and making the right sacrifices. It is important the players feel comfortable otherwise they won't play to their potential."
Some of that thinking meant any notion of a nationwide pre-World Cup road trip was scotched.
Shand said five camps before the 2003 World Cup had been too taxing and "we have found that it takes the edge off us".
It was also more practical to deal with commercial partners, the media and fans in two hits in Christchurch and Auckland. "That way we are able to give these guys [the players] more time at home because it will be such an intense period of time for them when they are away," said Shand.
"We do not want them to be stale, we want them to arrive with great anticipation, excitement for what is ahead. We want them to be fizzing."
Shand said his greatest World Cup concern was the threat of terrorism.
"It is a large global event and players' safety and security are always on your mind. But we have consulted all the right people and taken all the advice from foreign affairs, police and government agencies. We will have security people at the tournament with us and I would not like to be spending a lot of time dealing with any issues.
"We have run sessions on personal awareness, the different environment we will find ourselves in, the security issues and understanding the risks they carry as professional sportsmen.
"There are social, political, terrorist, criminal threats and you can't be complacent. We just like to key in some thoughts for the players."
The squad have three days in Auckland this week and will fulfil obligations to sponsors, complete their outfitting and have briefings, media sessions and several rigorous encounters against the Barbarians.
The opening camp in Christchurch sorted out how they wanted to live and work as a team in France, Scotland and Wales and sorting out what had made the difference for them in the four years of Henry's reign.
"There are some things where we do not want to be too rigid, though we want to have a strong understanding," Shand said of issues such as curfews. "We want to be flexible, we have never been great fans of things like curfews.
"The big chunks of work are done ... Now we all want to get on the plane; we are sick of looking at checklists. It shows we are ready. There is a high level of excitement."
