Winning mindset key to All Black magic
On the train back from Twickenham after Australia had booked their place in Saturday’s World Cup final after a merited victory over Argentina, an Irish fan was deep in conversation with a large New Zealand party, proudly boasting how he had cheered enthusiastically for Argentina in the semi-final.
“How could you cheer for them after what they did to Ireland in Cardiff” asked the proud Kiwi.
“Ah, we’re good losers” replied the Irishman.
“Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser,” was the less than sympathetic reply from our New Zealand friend. To add insult to injury, his two colleagues and their wives all nodded in agreement.
It sums up New Zealand’s approach to rugby. It’s win or bust. Their record since winning the World Cup four years ago is quite phenomenal. In the 53 tests played since Richie McCaw lifted the Webb Ellis trophy in Eden Park, his side have drawn twice (both against Australia) and lost just three test matches, 38-21 to England at Twickenham in 2012, 27-25 to South Africa at Ellis Park in 2014 and perhaps significantly, just two and a half months ago by 27-19 to Australia in Sydney.
As if to put them back in their box, New Zealand responded by hammering the Wallabies 41-13 in Auckland a week later. It is that winning culture that make New Zealand favourites to retain their crown and become the first country to win the World Cup three times.
Should Michael Cheika mastermind yet another victory against the odds then Australia will become the first side to reach that milestone. Given the mess they were in only a year ago that would be some achievement but they are up against some machine in Steve Hansen’s All Blacks.
Thirty minutes after the final whistle of a bruising semi-final against South Africa, Hansen was asked at the press conference whether or not winger Nehe Milner-Skudder would be available for the final having been forced off injured early in the second half. “Ya mate, he will be available and before you ask, we have no injuries, everybody is available.” What is it in their DNA that allows all of their players to come through such a monstrously physical encounter against the beastly Springboks intact?
Ireland just seem incapable of dealing with that level of attrition despite the fact that, physically, they are in fantastic condition. We just lack the innate bulk carried with ease by the Afrikaners, Polynesians and the beef eating Argentineans. So many of the Pumas forwards are barely out of nappies yet they have the power and physique of men with several hard training years behind them.
The closest to us in a genetic sense is the Australians. In fact compared to the likes of Rob Simmons, Kane Douglas, James Slipper and Scott Fardy many of the Irish forwards are bigger, stronger and more aggressive beasts.
Yet we struggle to last the course.
Had we managed to negotiate a safe passage against Argentina, we would still have entered the Australian semi-final without, Paul O’Connell, Peter O’Mahony, Jared Payne, Tommy Bowe and perhaps Johnny Sexton.
Who knows how many more we may have lost against the Wallabies with another bruising test guaranteed only five or six day later in the third/fourth place play-off or the final itself.
Even the teak tough Argentineans will struggle to field a team on Friday night given the injury toll they experienced last Sunday. A World Cup, with seven internationals in as many weeks, provides the ultimate test of the depth, quality, resilience, mental and physical toughness of your squad. If you emerge triumphant at the end then, without question, you deserve it.
You can’t ride your luck for seven weeks in a row. What we have arrived at after 46 highly entertaining contests is the tournament’s two best teams, both unbeaten, and ready to slug in out for 80 minutes, or perhaps even longer if required, before the Webb Ellis trophy finds itself in the hands of the victorious captain.
The two candidates will be worthy recipients with the Wallaby’s Stephen Moore set to become the first Irish man to lift the trophy. Well it’s the closest we’ll get for at least another four years!
Moore’s parents are both Irish and emigrated from Tuam in 1988 for Mount Morgan in Queensland when he was five. He has always been both conscious and proud of his Irish heritage.
When Ireland U21s beat an Australian side with Moore on board in a World Cup semi-final in Scotland back in 2004, he became a person of interest to Irish rugby.
I tracked him down through a former school team mate living in Brisbane to explore if he would be interested in coming back to Ireland to play for Munster.
He politely declined as he did a year later when Connacht, under Michael Bradley, also made enquiries. I have met him a few times since, most recently on the 2013 Lions tour, and he is a smashing individual who has never forgotten his Irish roots even if he is now a very proud Australian.
Michael Cheika, himself of Lebanese extraction, openly explored the multi cultural make up of this Wallaby squad with each player required to deliver an in depth presentation on their family background and how they came to be Australians. It has had a massively unifying effect on their squad and has helped them understand what being an Australian is all about. If they succeed in winning on Saturday then a little piece of Ireland should be proud.
In the other corner however stands an icon of the game, possibly the greatest of them all. I plan to savour every minute of Richie McCaw’s 148th and final appearance for New Zealand having witnessed his first outing in the famous All Black jersey way back in 2001 against Ireland.
The game has advanced massively since then even though it was entering its seventh season as a professional entity. At the helm of that revolution was McCaw who set the bar for the new breed of breakdown terrorists that have dictated the outcome of key games since.
He is a remarkable rugby player who took an enormous amount of punishment over the years without ever blinking. No player has been singled out for more special treatment than McCaw. For years the cry was, stop McCaw at the breakdown and you have a chance of stopping New Zealand.
As most teams discovered to their cost, that was easier said than done. He has a pain threshold second to none. That said, Australia are best positioned at present to do that better than anyone with David Pocock and Michael Hooper offering a twin challenge to the great one.
On his last stand and on the brink of creating history as the only man to lead a side to two World Cup triumphs, don’t bet against McCaw delivering for a final time, fourteen years after being named man of the match on debut in Dublin.
