Read: ‘I recall a similar situation four years ago’
The moment is huge and the opponent dangerous, but the All Blacks captain feels a reassuring calmness about a scenario he and his team-mates have mostly all been through many times before.
Kieran Read presented a measured, determined and fully focused front as he spoke to the media on game eve at Eden Park and declared that tonight’s Bledisloe Cup decider was a great chance for the All Blacks to stand up and be counted.
Given what they’d just produced a week earlier, he said it was an opportunity they should all be exhilarated by.
The 120-test double World Cup winner recognises a big game when he’s about to play one and was not looking to dodge the stakes of this one at the end of a standard Friday walk-through on the park.
The All Blacks stand on the precipice just a month out from the World Cup kickoff. They just got beaten by a record score last week by the Wallabies in Perth and risk losing, not just the Bledisloe Cup for the first time in 17 seasons, but anything resembling momentum and confidence heading into the global event.
It’s been a long time since New Zealand’s finest put together something resembling an impressive test.
Read is well aware of the requirement to do so tonight at a ground they haven’t lost an international since 1994.
It’s why Steve Hansen and Dane Coles haven’t been the only prickly customers in camp All Blacks this week. Read says they pretty much all have been as they head towards a pressure point that’s highly familiar, but also critically important.
‘‘These moments are built for us as All Blacks and the way you respond is crucial,’’ Read said. ‘‘But we can’t just throw our eggs in that basket. We’re a team that backs ourself and our ability to perform, and that comes about through our skill and ability to put pressure on teams in certain areas. When you don’t do that, you’ve got to get a response.
‘‘This group is hurting. It’s how it should be in an All Blacks jersey. We’ve got that chance tomorrow night to go out and rectify that, and we’re excited by that.’’
Read was asked about the pressure, and was it unusual to be feeling so much in a Bledisloe clash?. Not really, he shrugged.
‘‘I recall a similar situation four years ago,’’ he said of an identical scenario where the All Blacks came to Eden Park on the back of a painful loss in Sydney and won handsomely.
‘‘It’s a one-off game, and we’ve been in these occasions before against the Australians in one-off games and you need a win. That’s the reality of it and I’m looking forward to that challenge. The guys know the expectations, but it’s not too different to other times we’ve been in this situation.’’