Oliver reveals All Blacks misery

ANTON OLIVER has given a graphic account of the desolation felt in the All Black dressing-room as the shock of their World Cup quarter-final defeat against France hit home.

Seeking to articulate his team-mates’ collective reaction to being knocked out in Cardiff, the New Zealand hooker was moved to evoke comparisons with scenes from the trenches of the First World War.

“I have just finished reading ‘Massacre at Passchendale’ and also ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’.