Pressure mounts on All Blacks

Reuben Thorne will take on the role of New Zealand’s Minister of Finance for 80 minutes tomorrow when the All Blacks clash with Australia in the first World Cup semi-final.

Such is the enormous expectation on the shoulder of Thorne and his All Black players, that a defeat to the Wallabies would send the nation spiralling into a pit of despair, financially as well as psychologically.

Thorne had to agree with the assertion that the health of New Zealand’s economy is intrinsically linked with the All Blacks’ campaign.

“Whether we win or lose affects the mood of the country so in that respect, yes it could,” Thorne said. “It’s sad but true.”

When the All Blacks came home after losing the 1999 World Cup semi-final to France, some of their bags appeared on the luggage carousel daubed with the word ’Loser’.

It was the third such failure in three World Cups following a semi-final defeat to Australia in 1991 and the loss to South Africa in the final four years later.

Only a repeat of the 1987 victory at the inaugural World Cup will do for the four million rugby-mad New Zealanders who have followed the tournament into the small hours of the morning.

It is a pressure the All Blacks have learned to deal with, but they are acutely aware the expectation back home means defeat is not an option.

“New Zealand’s a funny place,” said Thorne. “New Zealand supporters, some of them will come up to you and say, ’Good luck’, but most of them will come up to you and say, ’Don’t let us down’.

“That’s quite a big difference. We do our best but the reality is that you can’t win them all. It is why Saturday is the biggest game in the lives of every player in our side.

“The supporters back home, they’re very emotional, very passionate, they’ll be pumped up for this game and we’re going to go out there and give it our best shot.”

For all John Mitchell’s faults at this World Cup – he has led the All Blacks PR campaign with a cold, suspicious attitude – his decision to base the squad in Melbourne, away from the glare of publicity, has been a masterstroke.

Ironically, had New Zealand not lost the sub-hosting rights, the All Blacks would have been based at home.

But in Melbourne, not a rugby city by any stretch of the imagination, the players have had the freedom to explore and dine in relative anonymity.

It has helped keep the focus of the campaign on the rugby and the players are not distracted by the never ending rugby talk.

“We take the pressure off ourselves in this team by just saying that if we prepare as well as we can and we perform as well as we can, then that’s all we can do,” said Thorne.

“And that’s what we’ll be doing this weekend.”

Lock Chris Jack was not involved four years ago, but the despair following that defeat to France seeped deep into the nation’s psyche.

“It was obviously pretty devastating. We knew a few guys in the team and we knew what they were going through,” he said.

“This is the biggest game of my life so far. That’s the same for pretty much everybody in the All Blacks.”