AFTER TAKING A few wrong turns during our World Cup trek around France there was a quiet sense of relief when The 42 stepped off a metro south of Lyon city centre to be greeted by a large sign, temporarily altered to read: STADE DE NEW ZEALAND. There’s always a buzz when the All Blacks are in town.
On a beautiful morning in the quiet surrounds of New Zealand’s training base near the Stade de Gerland, a handful of media assemble to get a brief peak at the All Blacks in action ahead of their clash with Italy later in the week. Climbing the short staircase which leads to an immaculate pitch hidden by high walls of hedging, the first voice we hear is a familiar one. Out on halfway, face hidden under his black baseball cap, Joe Schmidt is running the show.
As we shuffle along the perimeters of the pitch Schmidt leads a small group of players through a short drill based on passing and carrying into contact. Schmidt discusses defence, reminding his players the opposition “can’t have their cake and eat it,” before providing enthusiastic feedback when a running line works out – “Oh yeah, I like that!”
New Zealand appear to be enjoying their time in Lyon. It’s not as sprawling as Paris but France’s third biggest city still offers plenty of space to quietly go about your day. Some of the players having been spotted out and about going for coffees and breezing around on the rental scooters which zip around every street.
Yet this World Cup has been a slightly odd experience for them. So used to being the team everyone wanted to avoid, they’re now being spoken of as the more favourable opponent on Ireland’s side of the quarter-final draw.
France and Ireland are the big news over here, the hosts dominating the headlines for obvious reasons before Ireland’s statement defeat of South Africa made the rest of the world really stand up and pay closer attention.
Even in Lyon, which will host New Zealand, Italy, Wales, Australia, Uruguay and Namibia this week, Ireland are a major talking point. That extends to within the All Blacks camp, with flanker Dalton Papali’i admitting Ireland’s win at Stade de France had his own pulse racing.
“That’s what fans love to watch,” Papali’i says. “Two great teams going at it. There were some moments in that game where you’d hold your breath for longer than usual.
“Those are the games where even as players, we try watch those games as a player and get some detail, see what they’re doing, but it’s hard to not turn to a spectator and actually be on the edge of your seat, because that’s how rugby should be played.
“How the game flowed so well, there’s no calls around head-highs (tackles) or shoulder to heads or anything, it was clean contact and it was fast ball. Those are the games I love watching.”
Papali’i doesn’t need to be told that should Andy Farrell’s side beat Scotland on 7 October, they’ll likely face the All Blacks in the quarter-finals, as the runners-up in Ireland’s group can expect to meet France, who are hot favourites to top Pool A.
Call this correspondent old fashioned, but a World Cup knockout tie against the All Blacks doesn’t exactly sound like a gift. Sure, Ireland have recently enjoyed the upper hand in the fixture but four years ago, New Zealand filleted Schmidt’s Ireland 46-14 in Japan. This group know how to win knockout games.
After winning a condensed Rugby Championship, Ian Foster’s side came into the tournament as one of the four leading favourites but their aura has been dented by a heavy warm-up defeat to South Africa and disappointing opening night loss to France. They’ve since walloped Namibia and will expect to see off Italy and Uruguay. If they do make it out of the group, the knockouts will prove where they really stand.
Papali’i explains the quality of the Ireland-South Africa game has set a tone they are now aiming to match.
“If you want to play with the best you’ve got to play at that level and we’ve shown it through glimpses throughout the year, and now this is where you need to do it because this is the tournament we all want to perform at.
We know what the standard is now so we’re pretty exciting coming off a bye week to really show what we’ve got and the level we want to play at.”
Back out on the pitch, a whistle sounds and the players break off into different groups. A new set of exercises start up. Aaron Smith and Brodie Retallick work closely together on passing drills and a couple of box-kicks, the giant lock even shaping up to launch once himself. Beauden Barrett works on his kicking. A group of props throw themselves at tackle bags.
Behind them, Schmidt sends scrum-half Cameron Roigard off to fetch some foam noodles. Roigard will spend the next block of training trying to get quick ball away from the breakdown as one coach uses the noodles as interfering limbs and Schmidt, armed with a hit shield, leaps in with flailing legs and arms. There’s a few close calls but Roigard’s speed of delivery proves too quick for Schmidt, who is comfortably the most active of all the New Zealand coaches during our 20 minutes on the sidelines.
“He’s the GOAT, one of the GOATS in the coaching world,” Papali’i tells The 42.
“He has a lot of knowledge of the game and when he came into our Super (Rugby) team (the Blues) last year, he was a real difference-maker and he did wonders for us. Coming into this environment, he’s added his flavour and all the boys can feel it. You can’t really explain it. He’s awesome.”
Schmidt was just in the door with the All Blacks when Ireland claimed a famous series win in New Zealand last summer. A year on, it would be fascinating to see if his inside knowledge of the Ireland camp would have a more telling influence should they cross paths.
“Joe has put in a lot of work for us,” adds winger Mark Telea.
“Our backs and our forwards, he helps us a lot with our ball carries, our contestables, all those little details that other teams or players miss.
“He’s massive. I’d say Joe knows more than other coaches; he knows the names of (other) players and when he talks about information, he knows a lot of information! If you have a conversation with him he’ll probably know more about you than you (do). He could probably even ref the game if he wanted to.”
As the session wraps up a discarded baseball cap near the touchline causes some confusion. The number stitched on the side is a handy way to identify the owner. One coach takes a look and suggests Shannon Frizell was All Black number 1,191.
“No, he was earlier,” Schmidt replies. “1,178?”
We turn to Google. Shannon Frizell, All Black No: 1,172. Close, Joe.
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