THE BIG CHALLENGE for the All Blacks this week will have been coming down from the remarkable high they hit to beat Ireland in the quarter-finals, resetting themselves, and going again for their World Cup semi-final against Argentina.
Ian Foster’s side had been building towards that clash with Ireland for a long time. Really ever since they lost the series to Ireland on home soil last year. It was always quite likely that the sides would meet in the quarter-finals and when they did, New Zealand had a brilliant plan and got to an impressive emotional high.
You could see it in their celebrations. Rieko Ioane’s antics may have pissed Johnny Sexton off but the same applied last year when Ireland won in New Zealand. Some of their sledging certainly stuck in Kiwi minds.
So they were thrilled with what they did last weekend.
“That was the most proud All Blacks performance I’ve been part of,” says scrum-half Aaron Smith, who has huge experience as a centurion.
“The build-up, the emotion, the game, the spectacle itself. It felt like that game went on for two days, that second half felt like forever.”
There’s no doubt Sam Cane and co. went to the well to produce what was arguably their best performance of the Foster era. The head coach himself claims he still believes their win against South Africa in Johannesburg last year tops the pile, but last weekend was certainly a massive effort.
Now, the challenge is to ensure there’s no major dip tomorrow night at Stade de France as they look to book their place in the World Cup final by beating Argentina [KO 8pm Irish time, RTÉ].
“It was a special one last Saturday, but we didn’t come here to beat Ireland in the quarter-finals, we came here to win the World Cup,” says centre Anton Lienert-Brown, who is on the bench again tomorrow night.
“We enjoyed that night. We enjoyed Sunday and got back to work Monday. It was about resetting and getting back into the right mindset. We did that from Monday onwards as we know the challenge ahead tomorrow. We have to go again.
“We’re here to win the World Cup and tomorrow is another step to do that.”
All Blacks boss Foster says this week has been as much about the mental recovery from that Ireland game as the physical side of things.
He has been encouraging his players to steer clear of the praise coming their way.
“How you switch off and come down from that high,” says Foster of the mental approach. “The best way to recover is to refocus on what the next challenge is, not to listen to too much praise, get softened because everyone is patting you on the back. It’s not a good place to be as a team.
“If we’re not on for the Stade de France, it’s going to be a sad old night. We don’t want it to be like that. We’ve worked hard, we’ve got amazing support, we know we’re playing for a country, so we want to do them proud. No excuses.”
Of course, the All Blacks tasted the pain of semi-final defeat at the last World Cup in 2019.
Having hammered Ireland in the quarter-finals, they were completely outplayed by a brilliant England team a week later.
That has been at the forefront of their thoughts since last weekend.
“Just remembering the pain of it is a big driver, especially for a few of us boys who were there,” said scrum-half Aaron Smith.
“That feeling helped us reset after what was an emotional game [against Ireland] and everything on the line last week.
“That’s been the big lesson for us, taking the positives, acknowledging the step we took and how much that cost on the body, physically and emotionally, and rebuilding and finding the edge for what is another huge game for us and an opportunity for us to push forward in this comp which is our ultimate dream.”
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