Jamie Wall - Heroics and Heartbreak (Rugby)

First published in 2019

Text Jamie Wall, 2019

Photography as credited on page

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand.

ISBN 978 1 98854 732 9

eISBN 978 1 76087 303 5

Design by Kate Barraclough

Cover photograph INPHO/Dan Sheridan

For Amie G

THIS IS THE STORY OF a team, a goal, and a countrys expectations.

Its about players, coaches, journalists, administrators and officialsthe relationships that formed between them and the obstacles that they all faced. From an on-field point of view, its about a system of winning rugby games that was tested, tinkered with and massively challenged. From an off-field one, its about making sense of the publics mood and how it affected the team that means the most to New Zealand.

We, as the rugby media, live in a bubbleone in which a guy getting poked in the eye at training is treated like some kind of state secret, or where the biggest issue on your mind is who will be doing the goal kicking on Saturday night. Every now and then you get blasted back to reality, but for the majority of our existence its a constant stream of plane trips, media boxes, eating whatever food is closest to a stadium and desperately trying to figure out who will be named on a team sheet the day before its release.

This was the year that the All Blacks, arguably the most dominant team in sports history, would finally be able to put a definitive line under that claim. A World Cup win in 2019 would mean a decade of being champions, after the breakthrough 2011 win and nonchalant defence four years later.

Its difficult to really put a label on a book about following the All Blacks for a year. Part sports bio, part psychological analysis, part travel blog. Twelve months of watching expressions change on players faces, of feeling the creeping pressure build until all you wanted was to get to Japan and see it unleashed on the field. It crept and crept, until it grew so heavy it almost shattered the careful foundations the All Blacks had built.

Yokohama to Yokohamaat least, that was the plan. We had no idea what was going to happen in between the All Blacks first visit to the World Cup venue and the projected second in a years time. As it turned out, that first game against the Wallabies was the most assured performance the All Blacks would put on until well into the next season.

This is also an examination of the opponents the All Blacks would face during the World Cup, and the unbelievably high level of Kiwi connections that pervaded both the playing and the coaching stock. Of the motivations of men who would have grown up only ever wanting to play for a team (some indeed became All Blacks themselves) they now desperately wanted to defeat. Its about the difference in culture between rugby communities around the world, the people who go to watch, and how they react to wins and losses.

Most of all, this is a personal account. Being so close to a team youve idolised as a kid changes the way you think about them. The All Blacks are effectively our workmates, whether they like it or not. We often like to joke about how being part of the inner workings of the All Blacks is like getting put off sausages because you get to see how theyre made. While theres certainly an element of truth to that analogy, it is still hard to believe I get to do this for a job. Walking into some of the most impressive stadiums in the world and having them as your office for the day is something you never get sick of.

The journey for the All Blacks to the Rugby World Cup in 2019 was at times dramatic, at times hilarious and quite often surreal. Its also one I got to go on, and I count myself damned lucky to be able to say that.

Yokohama International Stadium, 27 October 2018

(328 days to the Rugby World Cup)

ALL BLACKS 37

WALLABIES 20

WERE STANDING IN THE MEDIA holding room of Yokohama International Stadium, Yokohama. Kick-off between the All Blacks and the Wallabies is about an hour away. Up the hallway, past two security guards with menacing looks on their faces, is a door that opens out to brilliant sunshine and a view halfway up the first deck of the 73,000-seat stadium. Its the biggest fortnight for Japanese rugby in a long time; after this test their national side will take on the All Blacks next weekend. But right now, all we care about is the fact that no one has thought to provide us with more than some convenience-store snacks to get us through the game.

We being the New Zealand contingent of media that have been assigned to cover the end-of-year tour. Half a dozen of us are here in Tokyo for a fortnight, then across to London for the next leg. After that its Dublin, before a week in Rome to finish the season. Id been told that the food laid on for the media was supposed to be pretty good when you went to overseas test matches, so seeing an array of Twinkies and cookies in front of us is a serious let-down.

Theres Nigel from Radio Sport, Ross and Blair from Newshub, Hannah from Getty Images, Gregor from the New Zealand Herald, among others who have taken the 14-hour flight up from New Zealand. Then theres me, on the tour on behalf of Radio New Zealand, Mori TV and basically anyone else who wants to pay me for whatever I can capture on an iPhone 7 Plus. All of us carting around tripods, equipment bags and sweat-soaked shirts in what is a surprisingly warm Japanese climate. Were all about to take our positions for the first test of the tour between the All Blacks and the Wallabies.

A mate who lived in Japan for the better part of a decade told me that Yokohama was the Lower Hutt of Tokyo. While hes kind of right in that its an outlying part of the greater Tokyo area, thats about where the similarities ended for me when I first got there. For a start, Lower Hutt doesnt have a 73,000-seat stadium that will host the Rugby World Cup final in just over a years time. Yokohama Stadium sits out in the middle of the local highway system that cuts its way through the megalopolis that is Tokyo. Yokohama is actually another city entirely, but on our way down there is no distinction between the two. Its just a mass of buildings and civilisation the entire way.

We knew this place was big, but you really dont figure out just how overwhelming it is until youre dropped right in the middle of it and left to chase the All Blacks around. In fact, so far the whole thing has more or less been one continuous ride on the Tokyo metro system with stops every now and then to watch the All Blacks train. That and sitting in on a series of mind-numbingly dull press conferences. Theyre being padded out by local journalists asking the team and staff numerous variations on what they think of Japan, Tokyo and Japanese rugby, with a few questions about what theyve been having to eat thrown in for good measure. This is not at all uncommon whenever the All Blacks travel.

We knew this place was big, but you really dont figure out just how overwhelming it is until youre dropped right in the middle of it and left to chase the All Blacks around.