Not so long ago the All Blacks were insular and aloof, driven by bad habits. Now they are open, transparent and willing to embrace anything that helps them perform better.
There was, from 2012, an increased desire within the All Blacks to embrace sports science, alternative therapies and cleaner living and determine who they really were.
As deep as the pain of losing the 2019 World Cup semi-final to England was, it was never going to overwhelm the
All Blacks.
To a man, they had a simple yet powerful defence mechanism which was that they all knew that rugby didn't define them. One loss would not make them losers. One defeat, however painful, didn't have to materially change the way they thought about themselves or who they were.
As Sonny Bill Williams said a few days after: “I have faced some adversity throughout my sporting career and that has put me in good stead to face this. It was a pretty tough night, but at the same time I tried to look at the positives we could take and what we could learn as individuals and as a team.
“We are all driven individuals and we are all very disappointed. I was disappointed knowing the effort we had put in and some of the staff members had put in. Our families and what not and everyone rides that emotional wave but the way I look at life is a game doesn't define me by any means so I took a step back and looked over at Sam [Cane] and said to him how special it was for me to be able to play part of my career with a guy like him.”
There was perspective from Williams and certainty in his own mind that a loss, however public and grand scale, doesn't need to pervade deep into his soul and make himself question who he is.
He plays rugby and yet he's a father, a husband, a friend, a brother and most importantly a citizen linked to a wider community.
Captain Kieran Read made a similar observation when he spoke to the media a day after the loss – a defeat which came on his 34th birthday.
“It is pretty empty,” he said. “It is not what we came here for. That's the reality of it. It is not going to define us as a group. It is not going to define who we are.
“There's no two ways around it.
You are really gutted but I am sure there are a lot of people in the same boat as us and hurting pretty badly too so we feel for them.
“It was my birthday yesterday and I got back to my hotel room and there were cards there from my kids. It changes things and puts it in perspective.
“It is a rugby game. People care. We care. For me I am a dad and first and foremost that is the thing I want to be remembered for.”
Compare this with 2007, the last time the All Blacks lost a World Cup game, and the differences are stark.
When the All Blacks lost 12 years ago in the quarter-final to France they hid from the world. They tried to sneak out of Cardiff without saying anything on the night – with only Anton Oliver and Byron Kelleher stopping to speak to the media as they were supposed to as they filed out of the stadium.
That defeat led to a massive review. It led to a few players questioning who they were and sat heavy on the conscious of the team.
Back then the All Blacks didn't have the same perspective about rugby being a game. They weren't so good at realising that the true measure of their character was to be able to accept defeat with the same good grace they did victory.
They weren't so sure back then how to compartmentalise defeat because so many players only saw themselves as rugby players and were defined by what happened on the field.
It was a different world back then and some of it was due to the fact professionalism was still in its infancy and some of it was because players had a stereotypical and narrow view of life and how they fitted into it.
Of the many changes that have occurred in Steve Hansen's coaching tenure, the success in broadening the horizons of the squad has been one of the greatest.
It has also been unheralded to an extent because it is not necessarily an overtly tangible thing that can be easily viewed or explained.
But it was a deliberate shift that Hansen drove. He wanted his players to have the character to accept defeat. In his view it was the true measure of their character – being able to find the resilience to cope with dignity and bounce back.
“Is it hard to stomach? Course it is,” he said in Tokyo the day after losing to England.
“It’s gut-wrenching because we wanted to win the thing but so did they. Life’s not
WINNING IS EASY. YOU DON’T GET TOO MUCH POKED AT YOU. BUT WHEN YOU LOSE YOU ARE GUTTED BUT AT THE SAME TIME YOU HAVE TO SHOW HUMILITY AND DO IT GRACEFULLY AND BE HONEST. SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO BITE DOWN ON YOUR GUM SHIELD AND SUCK IT UP.’ STEVE HANSEN
fair so why would sport be fair. You don’t always get the thing you want. And when you don’t you’ve got to measure your character on how you deal with that.
“Winning is easy. You don’t get too much poked at you. But when you lose you are gutted but at the same time you have to show humility and do it gracefully and be honest. Sometimes you just have to bite down on your gum shield and suck it up.”
That his All Blacks were able to do exactly that – bite down on the gum shield and suck it up was due to a host of factors that essentially came down to one central truth – under Hansen, they had come to determine individually who they were.
They had come to see that they had the freedom to be their true selves and because of that, they could not only cope better with defeat and bounce back quickly from it, they could also smash through the old barriers of false expectation.
The All Blacks had the power to be what they wanted not what they thought everyone else wanted.
As well as breaking records throughout Hansen's coaching tenure, the All Blacks were also breaking stereotypes.
They had found a new comfort in being themselves. Previous All Blacks sides had perhaps been wary of conforming to expectation, but not this crew.
A process of change that began in 2012, accelerated in 2016. Kieran Read's leadership and Hansen's management had empowered the players to be themselves. The new generation coming into the team had no sense of expectation about behaving to fit a world view.
They did what they felt was right and what helped them become better players. The old ways were anathema to them and their willingness to be who they were and not care, inspired the established group to also be less wary of how they were perceived or what people thought.
It was apparent as the first year post the 2015-World Cup played out, that the All Blacks had discovered a new identity almost.
They were a million miles removed from the older, amateur culture of the All Blacks and had embraced professionalism harder than any other team of the past.
Previous All Blacks regimes of the professional age had rid themselves of the worst of the heavy drinking nonsense of the past. They had kicked out the bullying elements and ritual drinking but while it was less obvious and less frequent, heavy nights on the sauce were still part and parcel of life as an All Black.
Victories were celebrated with a good night on the grog and recovery sessions still tended to be more a can of coke and a game of golf than they were ice baths, massage and light stretching.
Things were slowly changing in the modern era but they leapt forward in 2016 as the All Blacks embraced anything and everything that they felt would make them a better team.
They took sports science seriously. All of the players had a tailored and specific conditioning programme that they followed in their time away from the team.
In the old days players tended to drift on the fitness front when they were left to their own devices, but not this team.
Sports psychology was an accepted and wanted part of the set-up. There was no mocking of it as mumbo-jumbo or pretending to embrace it.
The All Blacks mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka became one of the busiest and most respected coaches within the team.
Beer was mostly gone from the new age All Blacks and in its place gallons of green tea and berry smoothies guzzled.
The midfielders, who would meet every week to discuss tactics and specifics of their roles before a game, became known as the 'Green Tea Group'.
The rationale for the green tea was simple – there was research showing it had healing properties and that was enough for it to become the group's drink of choice.
In essence the green tea summed up the new attitude in the team – that there was a desire to be at the cutting edge of high performance.
Anything that could potentially give the All Blacks an advantage be it mental or physical was to be embraced.
So heavy drinking, junk food and a poor attitude towards conditioning and recovering were long gone.
The new attitude was progressive, inclusive and tolerant - alternative therapies and disciplines could be tried without fear of stigma being attached or a peer group judging.
Yoga and Pilates became big favourites within the squad because there was a near obsession to maintain and develop flexibility.
Ma'a Nonu had been one of the first to normalise yoga within the All Blacks and his devotion to it encouraged others.
Beauden Barrett revealed early in 2016 that he was a convert. “I've been working on my flexibility, that's been vital for me,” he said.
“I'm quite a stiff bloke so extra sessions here and there have certainly helped.
“It's more a recovery thing for me. It's great for the mind as well as the body. It's just getting that right balance and I've seen great benefits from that.”
The fact Barrett was happily doing
Yoga was one thing, but it said as much again, if not more, about the culture within the team that he was happy to talk about it publicly.
That openness and transparency removed any perceived fear about trying new and different things and left players comfortable that they could explore what worked for them under a regime where no idea was considered too whacky.
“I have tried Yoga and I really enjoyed it but things have to fit into your plan,” said All Blacks veteran Israel Dagg.
“I know a lot of the guys love it.
But I have started doing a thing called float where you jump into a pod and they have 500kg of Epsom salts and you just lie there for an hour and switch off.
That is amazing.
“I do that once a week and it is good for my mind. You get away from the game, relax and float. There are lots of tools out there ... Yoga, Pilates ... but I get about three hours of massage a week and float for an hour.
“I guess there could be that stigma that if you go to Yoga it is only for girls. That's only what people think. It doesn't matter. Our body is our tool and we need it to function. If you don't look after it, you won't perform.”
The inclusive culture of the team was a major driver in allowing everyone to embrace alternative methods of staying fit and getting an edge.
But the influence of Williams was particularly significant. A figure often maligned by the public, Williams was revered within the team for the lengths to which he went to prepare his mind and body.
He was an early adopter of new methods
and experimental ideas and the incredible physical condition he maintained was the ultimate proof that searching for answers was worthwhile.
Williams took training, recovery and lifestyle management to new levels.
He didn't drink, said he's “a total psycho” about what he eats, he prays twice a day, observes Ramadan, dabbled with the ancient practice of cupping, owns a NormaTec machine - a high end compression device that aids recovery and is favoured by ultra endurance athletes - and relentlessly worked on ways to improve his chances of playing at the highest level.
“He's the ultimate professional,” said Dagg. “He's always got these new tools and is bringing in these new machines. If you watch him, he's always stretching and looking after his body. He doesn't even lift tonnes of weights, he's just naturally gifted and strong.
“He looks after his recovery, food, nutrition, flexibility is huge for him - all that stuff is 100 per cent important.”
Williams' attitude was infectious.
His work ethic was said to be a source of inspiration to all those who spent time playing and training with him.
He instilled this deeper realisation among his peers about the levels of hard work and discipline required to keep winning and by extension it had the effect of also putting greater emphasis on career planning.
And, because of his faith, he brought perspective. He made everyone see that the sun would still come up the next day and that life would go on.
As much as the adoption of sports science and cleaner living was about preparing for the present, it was also about giving players longevity.
It dawned on players that the key to enjoying a long career is to look after the body. Look after that and the mind will follow.
As part of that thought process, older players had come to see that if they looked after themselves they could be playing test rugby into their early to mid 30s and as the likes of Nonu, Carter and Smith had shown, it was even possible to head offshore at that stage in life and still command a huge pay packet.
It was the dream ticket – have a long and successful test career and then finish off with a lucrative foreign adventure.
But it was only possible if the body could be preserved and protected so it could still be performing well for that length of time.
“If you go back 10 or 12 years, there were no players over the age of 30 playing in New Zealand,” said New Zealand Rugby contracts manager Chris Lendrum in 2016.
“Now there are quite a significant number. There is no doubt the Super Rugby clubs are better resourced than they previously have been and they do more to care for the athletes.
IT IS NOT WHAT WE CAME HERE FOR. THAT’S THE REALITY OF IT. IT IS NOT GOING TO DEFINE US AS A GROUP. IT IS NOT GOING TO DEFINE WHO WE ARE.’ KIERAN READ
“But if you look at a couple of guys, like Wyatt Crockett and Ma'a Nonu, say, players who have had long careers and played a lot of minutes, what isn't seen is the enormous amount of work they do on their own time to keep them at that peak level.
“Sonny Bill Williams has led the trend towards looking at alternative methods but I think a lot of our guys now are willing and ready to try different things to allow them to keep playing for longer.”
Searching for something to gain an edge wasn't just important in practical terms, it was important mentally as it became the mind-set which drove the All Blacks in everything they did.
It said they were not content to stand still or accept mediocrity. They were hungry to be better. They were determined to work ultra hard behind the scenes in the hope that all these tiny sacrifices would add up to something.
And it was indicative of the realisation that to stay in the team, it was imperative to keep striving for those incremental gains as the competition were doing just that.
“As we mature as a professional sport, athletes are starting to understand that if they want to have longevity they have to act in a professional manner and manage themselves in their stretching, their food intake, their alcohol intake,” said Hansen.
“It's not a matter of them not drinking, it's how much do they drink, when do they drink?
“Rest and recovery is also important because you want to be performing to a high standard all the time. I think the understanding of all that has got better as time has gone on.”
Whatever happens next for the All Blacks, they have at least the security of knowing the players are equipped to process the 2019 World Cup, learn from it and return to action wiser for the experience.
The disappointment of it all won't overwhelm them or leave players wondering whether they are good enough to play test football.
That's the strength they now have due to the exploration into who they really are. That's the strength they now have as a result of seeing that they are rugby players only when they play rugby and people the rest of the time.
It's been a massive breakthrough meant that young players can be shaped but not scarred by defeat. They can be hurt but not broken. They can see that the instant they walk off the field, they will be defined by how they react to whatever has happened and how they conduct themselves in the much wider field of life.