Murray Kinsella reports from London
THEY WHO MUST Not Be Named. You Know Who.
The Kiwis are convinced that the Australian rugby team have decided not to use the term ‘All Blacks’ when talking about New Zealand’s national rugby team this week.
The NZ Herald is even reporting that the Australian Rugby Union has passed down an “unofficial edict” to the staff and players not to refer to the New Zealanders as the All Blacks.
The rumour has had journalists scrabbling through transcripts of press conferences and listening back to audio files on their dictaphones. Indeed, it seems that the ‘All Blacks’ haven’t been mentioned so far this week at the Lensbury Hotel, where the Aussies are staying.
Or should we call them the Wallabies? What’s in a name?
Clive Woodward famously banned the 2005 Lions squad from calling the opposition the ‘All Blacks’, but ended up on the end of a heavy 3-0 series defeat.
Ireland’s Cian Healy is another man who doesn’t have time for the tag.
“I don’t like the name the All Blacks,” said Healy before Ireland’s near miss against the Kiwis in 2013. ”I don’t like putting any team on a pedestal. When you do that, you find yourself below them already.”
Healy also professed at the time that he “hates” the Haka, and there are certainly many who argue against a war dance being allowed to precede Test games. For others, it’s a stunning spectacle that motivates both teams involved.
All ears will be pricked in the Lensbury tomorrow at around 4pm, when Michael Cheika is due in front of the media to name his team for Saturday’s World Cup final. Will he mention those two dirty words? Will any of the players presented for interview dare to address the elephant in the room?
It may simply have been the Kiwis reading a little too much into the lack of ‘All Blacks’ mentions on the ARU’s social media pages, but there’s an interesting debate at the heart of the conspiracy theory.
Clearly New Zealand rugby players take confidence from calling themselves All Blacks, summoning a history of success – and some failures that are best ignored – when they run onto the pitch and face down opponents that their brethren of yesteryear also regularly beat.
Woodward’s thinking was that calling them the All Blacks empowered the Kiwi players even further. The mythology of the Kiwis was something that Woodward appeared to be apprehensive about. His refusal to say ‘All Blacks’ was intended to show that he wasn’t in awe of the Kiwis.
Perhaps the energy invested in doing so is negative, however. It might even be that the refusal to call the All Blacks by the name they have given themselves motivated that particular bunch of New Zealand rugby players. It helped, of course, that they were a superb rugby team.
This crop is pretty good too. They’ve been utterly dull in front of the media this week, clearly at great pains not to say anything that might be used as motivation by Cheika, a genuine master of motivation.
Tuesday afternoon’s trek out to Pennyhill Park – the training base of England’s rugby team where the Kiwis are staying and training this week – proved to be a little fruitless aside from seeing the place.
The manner in which six of Steve Hansen’s players batted aside even the least dangerous of questions bordered on the laughable. You had to respect the lengths the likes of Sam Whitelock and Keven Mealamu went to in order to avoid saying anything that could be used against them.
A sensible policy it must be said, even if some of those with pages to fill left the media tent perplexed.
It was nice to see Pennyhill Park after hearing such great things about the place from Stuart Lancaster and his group of World Cup disappointments. Situated near the Ascot racecourse, this particular pocket of England is home to some incredible wealth.
As has been the case throughout this World Cup, the taxi driver who ferried us from train station to training base proved to have some fascinating insight.
That house? £16 million, owner from Dubai. This one on the right? £26 million, Kazakhstan. Here on the left? A Russian bought it, razed it and built a new one modelled on his favourite house in Monaco.
The hotel itself is five-star and as luxurious-looking as would be expected, though the media events took place in a big tent in the car park, one that has come in for some criticism in recent times. No complaints here.
How Lancaster would love to be sleeping in his four-poster bed in Pennyhill Park tonight, with thoughts of the final waking him intermittently. In truth, involvement for the home nation would have made this week a hell of a lot more exciting.
As is the way in London, you would be hard pushed to realise that a World Cup final is just days away. The travelling Kiwis and Aussies, as well as the expats now based in England, will converge on Twickenham again on Saturday afternoon and it can’t come quickly enough.
Hansen and Cheika will be up for questioning tomorrow afternoon, which should provide a bit of intrigue, but the war of words ahead of this final has seen both sides down arms and rest up in the trenches.
Bring on the battle.
