The All Blacks are treating the World Cup like any other tournament, breaking it into short winning moments rather than focusing on the final. Their opening game against France is massive, and they've studied past upsets: France in 1999, Australia in 2003, Japan beating South Africa.
Four World Cups.
France (they have a massive game to start with against the French).
What does it mean to you, this last one?
Well, in a lot of ways, it's just got to be business as usual. You know, World Cups are a little bit different, so I just hope the fact I've been through four gives me a bit of IP that'll be valuable to the group, you know, because you can anticipate a lot of what's going to happen. Having been through a lot, I know in France, it will have all its own challenges, and so I'll be at the forefront of managing a lot of those. Yeah, because they can easily spiral out of control in a place like that. But again, that's a. It's just something to look forward to, you know, like, it just. It seems like a long time when you look at it on a piece of paper, but it's actually so rapid. You get into it and it's like week, week, week, week. It's keeping your people healthy, you know, not. Not physically, but mentally healthy, because it's a. It's a little bit of a marathon in some ways. And.
We enter it and we got a massive game to start with against the French, and then we've got some other matches that we'd be expected to win, and kind of got this period of waiting until you go to the period where you've got to win or you go home. So it's quite a different. You got to take a different mindset, I guess, into something like that and build slowly. Hit it hard to start with because we have to. But then recharge again, reconnect, almost compartmentalize it so that they become pieces. And you, I guess you always. When you're rehabbing an athlete or something, you don't want to get too far ahead. It's like, what's the immediate goal? You know, what's this week look like? Let's just nail that then, you know, break it down, make it shorter. Don't set the horizons too far. You know, it's very easy to get.
Ahead of yourself because you get overwhelmed and anxious.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's very much about now. Winning moment. Coaches talk a lot about winning moments, and you've got to do that everywhere, on and off the field, you know.
So rather than winning a whole campaign, it's like, we've got a moment that's right here. Let's win that.
You got to be the best every day in the tournament. You know, it doesn't. Nothing else matters. Doesn't prior form, reputation. People turn up at World Cups and do extraordinary things at times, like, because they're fueled by the magnitude of the world stage. So you have to be. You have to be ready for that. We've been caught out with that at times. The French have done that to us in 99, and in 2007, Australia did it to us in 03. So things happen now. Japan beat South Africa.
You know, that was like, nobody expected that.
Right. So that's what happens in World Cups. So every. Yeah, it all matters. And, yeah, we get on. And, yeah, you enjoy the different lifestyle that you're going to live, and you make the most of that, because that's a. That's a rich experience in itself. So. And we'll be in places that we're not normally to. So getting new experiences and new things to try and, well, set up to succeed. I love it.
It's exciting.
