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'The All Blacks didn't want to admit to ourselves that we were chokers at the World Cup'
Three Rugby World Cups may equal the tally for the most ever won, but you could easily argue that trio of trophies are shy of a just reward for the legendary record that the All Blacks lay claim to.
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Since 1903, New Zealand’s national men’s rugby team has won 77 per cent of their games. No other team comes close to that record.
84 years of prominence came to a head in 1987, when the first-ever Rugby World Cup was kicked off right in the All Blacks’ backyard.
They won. Then, they didn’t
We went from Nirvana to One Direction, from the World Wide Web to the iPhone 4, from Margaret Thatcher to David Cameron before the All Blacks lifted the Webb Ellis Cup again.
The 24 years between drinks were not because the All Blacks relinquished their rank, the winning continued, but not when the sport’s prized jewel was on the line.
In a deeply insightful and reflective interview, legendary All Blacks coach Sir Steve Hansen discussed what it took to break that drought, specifically how he and Sir Graham Henry empowered the players to live up to the moment at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
“(The players) thrive under pressure because they prepared for it,” Hansen told the High Performance Podcast. “It’s not the pressure that’s making them thrive, it’s the preparation that’s making them thrive.
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“They plan for, when this gets hot and it’s a tug of war, in the heat of the game, they’re not worried about the scoreboard.
“Their plan is forget the scoreboard, their plan is to stay right here where my feet are. Stay in the now, what’s the job I’ve got to do? Let’s do that job as really good as I can and hope like hell the guy across from me, he’s worrying about the scoreboard, or he’s worried about the mistake he’s just made.
“And I think that’s the difference, having those mental skills.
“For a long time, the All Blacks didn’t want to admit to ourselves that we were chokers at the World Cup.
“The reason we didn’t is because the people at the top didn’t have to own it, because you got the sack. So, the next guy coming in says ‘well it’s not my fault, I didn’t choke so I’m not a choker’.
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“But in ’07 we got the opportunity to do it again and we had to sit there and say ‘well sh*t, what are we going to learn from this? What can we take out of this pain and put it into a wee parcel that’s going to make us good?’
“We won two World Cups because of the fact that they allowed us to have another go, we took the learnings and Bob’s your uncle, Spongebob got there and got the job done.”
Not only did the All Blacks win the 2011 Rugby World Cup, but they did it having “lost more first-fives than most teams have hot dinners” as Hansen put it.
Being in a mental space that is prepared for, and anticipating the need to respond to the inevitable adversity of a World Cup was a huge focus in the 2011 campaign.
The team took the time to have conversations that defined exactly what the pressure they were under looked like.
“We have to admit to ourselves that there is a lot of pressure, so how are we going to deal with the fact that we haven’t been in a final before? What is that pressure doing to each of us individually, that we haven’t been there before? Walk towards it.
“We get into trouble because we don’t expect some things to happen so we feel threatened by it. Then we get aggressive, either fight, flight or freeze. We all understand that term but we don’t know how to deal with it.
“The simple thing is, we go there every day, something will threaten us that we didn’t expect so the more things we can plan that might happen that we don’t want to happen, the better off we’ll be to react to it when it does happen.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I guess we may all agree on the fact, that the ABs and Boks are the two in contest for No 1 in rugby history (the triple-A sort of) …. the Wallabies, England and France are the next tier, with Ireland being the new kid in town (AA) …. in my view it makes little sense creating imaginary competitions (unless you have too much time to waste)
43 Go to commentsWhat a joke. Total joke and the pundits commentating, all of whom know a bit about the game, could barely disguise their contempt. Reaching for the card then pulling back when he realised a red card would carry further match suspensions is simply not his decision to make. A clear and obvious influence on the outcome of this match and indeed, the championship path.
3 Go to commentsI like the idea, in NZ the Ranfurly Shield and NPC coexist, both having their own bragging rights. The World Cup would be the pinnacle, but the competition and travels of these trophies would be interesting.
43 Go to commentsDon’t worry Sonny bill Williams leave that awkward situation about the curfew in the pass whoever it was it doesn’t matter its no big deal we back our All Blacks through the storm and the thunder until we see the Sun light again.
42 Go to commentsWho listens to this retard? He was a massive liability as a player but obviously a media sensation
42 Go to commentsI’m not surprised by such ‘virtue signalling’ by Sonny Boy. Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He’s such a pious Islamic muppet, imo.
42 Go to commentsI’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
43 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
3 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
6 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
2 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
6 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to comments