At a glance

2011 Rugby World Cup semifinal All Blacks v Australia Sunday, October 16, Eden Park, Auckland

Lineups:

All Blacks: Israel Dagg, Cory Jane, Conrad Smith, Ma’a Nonu, Richard Kahui, Aaron Cruden, Piri Weepu, Kieran Read, Richie McCaw (c), Jerome Kaino, Sam Whitelock, Brad Thorn, Owen Franks, Keven Mealamu, Tony Woodcock. Reserves: Andrew Hore, Ben Franks, Ali Williams, Victor Vito, Andy Ellis, Stephen Donald, Sonny Bill Williams.

Australia: Adam Ashley-Cooper, James O’Connor, Anthony Fainga’a, Pat McCabe, Digby Ioane, Quade Cooper, Will Genia, Radike Samo, David Pocock, Rocky Elsom, James Horwill (c), Dan Vickerman, Ben Alexander, Stephen Moore, Sekope Kepu.

Reserves: Tatafu Polota-Nau, James Slipper, Rob Simmons, Ben McCalman, Luke Burgess, Berrick Barnes, Rob Horne.

SCOREBOARD:

All Blacks 20 (Ma’a Nonu try; Piri Weepu 4 pen, Aaron Cruden dg)

Australia 6 (James O’Connor pen, Quade Cooper dg). HT: 14-6.

out to be a broken bone.

‘‘Richie never shirks. He’s always into everything, really competitive, but I remember him taking a step back a bit and watching a few of the drills, and I kind of thought to myself, ‘I wonder if he’s OK’,’’ Kaino says.

‘‘We had heard whispers but we never really thought it was anything, because, Richie, he’s got a pretty good poker face and he’d be in the gym doing everything.’’

Kaino, of course, needn’t have worried. And even afterwards, in what had been quite the brutal encounter, such was the skipper’s humility, there weren’t many giveaways.

‘‘He was covered in ice, I think the foot was in a chilly bin,’’ Kaino says.

‘‘We saw the way that he had played and that there was no real limp when he was out there on the field, so we just thought it was him trying to recover as fast as possible. So we never really thought it was that serious.’’

Adds Dagg: ‘‘It was just inspirational. Ricko just doesn’t have any pain threshold. He’s the strongest person you’ve ever met, you wouldn’t even know he was sore.’’

And that changing room made for quite the mix of emotions, after a performance to be proud of, but with World Cup nemesis France looming for the decider.

‘‘It was relief, and it was excitement, I was fizzed, I was pumped, but then in the back of your mind there was that [thought], ‘Ok, I’ve got to recover, get my body right, because this time next week we could potentially be holding that trophy’,’’ Dagg recalls.

‘‘We were brought straight back down to earth. I remember Smithy [Wayne Smith] coming up and throwing the Powerade bottle at me and going, ‘Mate, you’re lucky you played well’. He had wanted to rip my head off [following the off-field incident].’’

Indeed, as Kaino notes, all of this great stuff would be quickly forgotten should they not get the job done in seven days’ time.

‘‘The coaches and Richie and the leadership group were quite good at keeping the boys’ feet grounded during that campaign, because the All Blacks had been to many a quarterfinal and semifinal and not really achieved anything. So we didn’t want to get to the final hurdle and trip up because we hadn’t prepared properly.’’