KEY POINTS:
The mental scars have at last healed, leaving no visible signs. Unlike the physical ones. But ask former All Black Craig Dowd his prediction for the World Cup final on October 21 and maybe those old psychological scars re-emerge.
Dowd, these days an increasingly respected forwards coach of Heineken champions London Wasps, saw at first hand as a player the price of New Zealand World Cup failure, in the 1995 and 1999 tournaments.
The shattering memory of those times invokes a deep-seated caution for Dowd when it comes to his hunch about the winner of this year's tournament.
"My heart is obviously with New Zealand, you'll know that. I wouldn't put money on the All Blacks because it wouldn't be a very good bet.
"But I think the French are the team to back. I think they will be very difficult to beat. They are carrying the weight of expectation of their own country and that will all be visible to them with the tournament in their own country. They are going to be treated like heroes everywhere they go. They will feel all that and want to do their country proud."
Dowd knows what it is like to try to contain French rugby passion in its own backyard. He's been there often enough with Wasps to understand the nature of the beast.
"When the French play with that passion, they can beat anyone," he warns.
"Any French team on home soil with that passion behind them, and the desire it will create for them to do well, is going to be tough.
"It would not surprise me if France reached the final. I do think that either France or South Africa could stop the All Blacks.
"Pound for pound, the French have the muscle to match them and I think they will get better as the tournament develops. They are peaking at just the right time."
Dowd doesn't hide his emotions about what it felt like to be there in a losing All Blacks team in 1995 and 1999.
"It was a horrible experience. After 1995 and what happened then, we spent the whole time building up to the '99 finals telling the squad we just had to focus intently on every single game. We warned them, 'We could lose any one of these vital games and we're out'.
"But I don't think a lot of the guys believed me at the time and we lost. France were incredible in that semifinal at Twickenham: it was just wave after wave of attacks and the bounce of the ball went their way, too.
"If New Zealand go home again as losers, people will label them as chokers."
Would that be too hard? Probably, is Dowd's view.
"You're not playing mugs at World cups. So to label New Zealand as out-and-out favourites is naive in my opinion. A World Cup should bring the best out of every player and who knows what that might mean to certain teams.
"South Africa is a sleeping giant, the Australians are cocky and confident they can beat the All Blacks again if they meet them, and who knows what the French might do."
But New Zealand are superior to most in one critical phase.
"The dominance New Zealand has, especially at scrum time, will give them a psychological advantage over most teams. That scrum is operating in a way no All Blacks team has ever operated before. It's a machine and that can take them to another level. I can't see anyone pushing them around."
As befits a wily veteran of so much test rugby (Dowd won 60 caps between 1993 and 2001), he points out some clever "advantages" the New Zealanders enjoy over other countries.
In fact, to put it bluntly, Dowd says that the All Blacks get away with more from referees than anyone else.
"When other teams try and collapse the All Blacks' maul, they get penalised; yet New Zealand do that all the time and rarely get pulled up. Richie McCaw isn't a cheat, he's a class act, but in other areas of the game, New Zealand do get away with a lot.
"New Zealand just shut down the driving maul by collapsing it but they never get penalised. England do it very well, too, and often escape. Referees have to look at that if they are going to be consistent."
Dowd would also like to see a radical improvement in the performance of television match officials during this World Cup.
"Some of the decisions by the TMOs lately have been bizarre. There was that Jonny Wilkinson 'try' at Twickenham last season when he clearly put a foot in touch. Then in one of the New Zealand/France tests this year, they took almost 13 minutes to make their minds up about a try.
Then in the Ireland v Italy warm-up international last month, there was an extraordinary decision by Derek Bevan to award Ronan O'Gara a try.
"This is an area of the game they need to tidy up if they don't want the game to become a farce. It also makes me quite angry when you know a try has almost certainly been scored, but they won't award it now if they can't actually see a hand on the ball.
The attitude now is, we didn't see it so we can't award it.
"But there has to be discretion in this area. If a guy holding the ball crashes over the line and it's obvious he probably scored, they should just give it. Too much use of this technology is slowing the whole game up."
Dowd will be busy with London Wasps as New Zealand try to lay their World Cup bogey. One day, he wants to become head coach, either at a club or back home with a province or maybe even the All Blacks. Then they'd have to listen to this man who talks so much good rugby sense.
Peter Bills is chief rugby correspondent for Independent News & Media in London
