New Zealand All Blacks captain Richie McCaw after the Quarter Final between France and the All Blacks, held at Millennium Stadium. Photo / Brett Phibbs.
New Zealand All Blacks captain Richie McCaw after the Quarter Final between France and the All Blacks, held at Millennium Stadium. Photo / Brett Phibbs.
A stunning win was met with a muted response by the All Blacks this morning. Their brilliant rugby pleased them, allowed them satisfaction, but it didn't have coach Steve Hansen believing anything other than they are now in the semifinal.
That was it as far as he and captain RichieMcCaw were concerned: they are a game closer to what they came to do but it all starts again this week.
"The reality is that all we have earned is another week," said McCaw. "I've learnt the hard way that you don't get ahead of yourself. We've played a grand final tonight and we'll play a grand final next week. Then hopefully, if we do things right, one after that."
The All Blacks are being deliberately under stated because they know how far they still have to go to win this competition. But while they were determined to not get carried away, there was some element of vindication to their slow start to this World Cup.
They have had to deal with questions being asked about what they have been up to since they got to England and many wondering whether they were losing their way.
Hansen has been adamant that everyone needed to be patient and trust that they knew what they were doing. That they had a plan to come to the boil when it mattered rather than play all their football when it didn't.
"It was a pretty special performance, no doubt about that," said Hansen. "Could we feel it building? As I said when I named the team earlier in the week, there's a difference between pool play and a knockout game because if you get it wrong you go home.
"If you couple the attitude with the talent, you know you can do certain things.
"When you come to the World Cup you come with a plan and we've had one. It's probably been questioned by a few people, I guess. But the key people who didn't question it were in the group... we had some players who really stood up and played particularly well, but we have just earned the right to go to training on Monday. We can't get too excited."
Hansen's opposite Philippe Saint-Andre was perhaps more appreciative of what he saw and maybe summed it up best when he said: "They are the Brazilians of rugby," he said. "They go fast and they won 80 per cent of the game.
"Every time we lost the ball there was a punishment. There were six players around our one every time we had the ball. They played with so much flair and skill."
Image 1 of 13: Richie McCaw leads out his team flanked by two mascots during the 2015 Rugby World Cup Quarter Final match between New Zealand and France. Photo / Getty Images
