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PARIS - Twenty years after their World Cup victory, New Zealand's champions class of 1987 are all in comfortable middle-age having long ago exchanged their boots for TV studios, classrooms and insurance brokerages.
But the giant shadow cast by being members of the All Blacks' only World Cup winning team means they have inspired a powerful legacy.
Some coped better than others after the 29-9 final win over France at Eden Park, Auckland, in June 1987.
Legendary winger John Kirwan, who scored one of his team's three tries, won 63 caps in his 10-year career, also coached Italy and will be in charge of Japan in France.
But he has won as many plaudits for his battle against depression as he did for any of his jinking moves down the flanks.
"One day I was happy-go-lucky JK, the next morning I got up, looked in the mirror and there was this guy I didn't like looking back," admitted the 42-year-old Kirwan, who has fronted a television campaign on depression in New Zealand.
He is such high-profile that being depressed in New Zealand is often referred to as "having a case of the Kirwans".
New Zealand Health Minister Jim Anderton believes Kirwan's fight has helped depression lose its stigma.
"By speaking so candidly about his personal experiences and what helped him to get his life back on track all those years ago, he has made it possible for many others to see the potential for a better life after depression," said Anderton.
Michael Jones, one of the greatest flankers to play the game, was on the scoresheet in the final and played 55 times. He also hit the headlines for his refusal to play on Sundays and will be in charge of Samoa in the World Cup.
Skipper David Kirk, the scrum-half, scored the third try in the final, but only played 17 Tests.
He retired immediately after the World Cup, studied at Oxford and is now chief executive of New Zeakand's major media group.
Giant No 8 Wayne Shelford, now 49, played 22 Tests, but admitted that he has never seen a replay of the final.
"I've never looked at a tape - you watch enough rugby without having to watch the old stuff," Shelford told the New Zealand Herald which tracked down the 15 men who played that day.
Shelford, who carved out a coaching career at North Harbour and Saracens, and then went into the hotel business, succeeded Kirk as skipper.
"We knew we had the acid on the French," he said.
Fly-half Grant Fox, who made 46 appearances, kicked the rest of his team's points in the final. After a brief coaching career, Fox turned his hand to journalism and now writes respected, hard-hitting columns.
Hooker Sean Fitzpatrick also went on to captain the team and is the All Blacks most capped player having made 92 appearances. He played in the 1991 and 1995 World Cups.
The 43-year-old, who is based in London where he works as a TV pundit, has no respect for those who label the All Blacks 'chokers'.
"Choke? Choke? What does that mean?" he asked the Daily Telegraph.
"Never failed to get to a World Cup semi-final. Is that choking?"
Of the others who featured in the 1987 final, full-back John Gallagher played 18 Tests before switching to rugby league and Leeds. Gallagher now teaches at a London prep school.
Centre Joe Stanley saw his son Jeremy play in three non-Test matches for the All Blacks and now works in corporate hospitality while fellow centre Warwick Taylor is a high school teacher.
Winger Craig Green coaches Benetton Treviso in Italy while forwards Alan and Gary Whetton were twins in the pack.
Blindside Alan Whetton does media work and will be a TV analyst in France while lock Gary, like fellow forward Murray Pierce, is in the insurance business.
John Drake is a newspaper columnist while fellow prop Steve McDowell is in property development.
For the French, Pierre Berbizier scored his team's only try in the final and he will coach Italy at the 2007 finals.
Didier Camberabero kicked the remaining five points.
They too had style aplenty.
Serge Blanco, who went on to win 93 caps, scored the late try in the epic 30-24 win over Australia in the semi-final and was skipper of the national side in 1991. These days Blanco is president of France's professional league
Berbizier also coached France to the 1995 semi-finals before he fell out with federation president Bernard Lapasset.
Skipper Daniel Dubroca went on to coach the national side in 1990 following Jacques Fouroux's resignation but resigned after the 1991 World Cup quarter-final defeat to England.
- AFP
