Under a blue sky and in front of several thousand spectators at Napier’s McLean Park, All Blacks captain Sam Cane and fullback Beauden Barrett have sat out the squad’s final training run before they travel for the World Cup.
Head coach Ian Foster told 1News’ Andrew Saville afterwards that Cane had been suffering from a gastro bug and Barrett a tight Achilles.
For Barrett, the condition is ongoing – he was taken off early during the All Blacks' big win over Australia in Melbourne as a precaution and he had a light workload last week before sitting out the 23-20 victory over the Wallabies in Dunedin at the weekend.
Asked whether Barrett’s issue needed to be carefully managed, Foster replied: “Not to any great extent but enough so that we’re going to have to make some smart decisions, particularly around trainings.”
The public training run today brings to an end the All Blacks’ three-day camp in Napier. After naming the 33-player World Cup squad on Monday night, the All Blacks have been out in the community hit hard by the January floods.
It is part of the management’s strategy to connect with New Zealanders before spending three months away.
Next Friday the All Blacks fly to London to prepare to play the Springboks at Twickenham on August 26 before travelling to France for the World Cup which starts with a match against the hosts in Paris on September 9.
The short training session covered the basics, Foster said.
“It was a bit of a reminder – we wanted to leave this camp with a critical few things that we know we’ve got to get right, to get our DNA in their minds so they can go away and have a break with our game in the back of their heads.”
And it came after the players received a few insights into what World Cups are all about, Foster said.
“We’ve had a fantastic time with the likes of Richie [McCaw] and Kevvy [Mealamu] here sharing a few stories so it’s replenished us a little bit.
“The [parting] advice was really clear, we’ve had five or six weeks [in the Rugby Championship] and the whole emotion of being here has been pretty big. So go away and you have eight days to replenish the energy levels at home. They can’t escape [trainer] Nic Gill so they’ve still got that side of it but it’s still a chance to have a decent break.
“The goal is to jump on the plane and be in the shape they were when they left here but also mentally – with a smile on their faces and be ready to go.”
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