Rugby World Cup final: Why ABs have the psychological edge

The All Blacks have the psychological edge over Australia with several of their squad having played in a Rugby World Cup. Photo / Brett Phibbs

It's usually a waste of time trying to find valid psychological currency ahead of any test, but perhaps this time the All Blacks have something.

It's not that they have dominated the Wallabies since 2003 and lost just once to them in their last 12 tests. Nor is there any mental leverage available from their last encounter - the 41-13 trouncing at Eden Park in mid August. All that has gone - counts for nothing now.

But what is important and can be tapped into is the fact that more than half of the All Black starting team have won a World Cup and the remainder saw it happen.

Seeing is often the key to believing. Humans are irrational - unable to accept an entirely possible outcome could happen until it does happen. It has certainly been like that in New Zealand with Rugby World Cups.

Inaugural champions in 1987 a nation was left wondering whether the All Blacks - perennial favourites and top dog - would ever win another. The litany of disasters became ever more painful and for 24 years it felt like the All Blacks were destined to find new and exotic ways to fail.

The All Black story at World Cups between 1991 and 2007 was one of mostly hubris. They came, they saw but they never conquered.

It reached desperation point in 2011. Hosts, number one team in the world and full of players and a coaching team who had all specifically hung around to finally get the job done, if victory hadn't come four years ago goodness only knows what state New Zealand rugby would be in today.

Nearly all of the All Black starting XV - with the exceptions of Owen Franks and Sam Whitelock - had been alive in 1987 and while most of them wouldn't necessarily remember seeing it happen, they would know it did.

But many of the players likely to be involved in the final this Sunday, weren't alive in 1987. As well as Franks and Owens, Joe Moody, Brodie Retallick, Aaron Smith, Julian Savea, Nehe Milner-Skudder, Sam Cane, Tawera Kerr-Barlow and Beauden Barrett had, prior to the last World Cup, never seen an All Black captain lift the Webb Ellis trophy.

Seeing is believing and now all 31 players in the All Black squad know that World Cups don't always have a sad ending for New Zealand. They have genuine reason to foster self-belief from that and that may be a factor than it appears.

Look back to 2011 and it was a game littered with dark moments for the All Blacks. All of the players involved, with the exception of Richie McCaw, that they had their doubts at various times.

As the French took control, there were a few All Blacks who couldn't help but wonder if they were destined to come up short. They had seen it happen so many times before and with the pressure building, there were mounting concerns it was going to happen again.

As Cory Jane revealed: "For those 30 minutes after half-time I was nervous. I started to think that after having done so much that we were starting to play absolutely terribly. A few boys starting abusing each other. "If someone dropped it, instead of doing what we had been doing in the past, words would be exchanged. Some guys started not telling the other guys the moves."

There was only a distant reference point for the 2011 team: a barely remembered campaign 24 years earlier that said the All Blacks could win a World Cup.

This time there is a strong memory for all 23 who play that the All Blacks can weather the storm - that they are not destined to fail at World Cups. That's something buried deep within the All Blacks and ins some way, could contribute to them staying calm, task focused and process orientated.

It's probably not much, but it's psychological currency of some kind.

- By Gregor Paul in London