Sam Cane is willing and able for All Black captaincy

World Cups can be yawn-inducing events for players who have so much time to kill between their daily duties and Steve Hansen’s All Blacks could do worse than spend an afternoon staring at the walls of their Lensbury Park Hotel.

Situated in a quiet corner of Teddington on London’s southwest corner, the hotel is decorated with decades of sporting memorabilia, including a dozen or so framed tennis racquets once used by the likes of John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl.

The Ireland Olympic team stayed here for the 2012 Games and left a signed jersey and photograph to prove it, as have a myriad of rugby teams stretching back at least as far as the Wallabies party that toured Britain and Ireland in 1982.