WELLINGTON, 28 June 2005 — The All Blacks arrived in Wellington yesterday, brimming with confidence as they began their preparations for the second test against the British and Irish Lions.
Tana Umaga’s men were given a hero’s welcome when they landed in the New Zealand capital after spending an extra day resting in Christchurch in the wake of their 21-3 thumping of the Lions on Saturday.
While the tourists lost the first Test and a handful of senior players to injury — including captain Brian O’Driscoll — and Danny Grewcock to suspension, things could not be any sweeter for the All Blacks.
The whole team was given a clean bill of health while Umaga and hooker Keven Mealamu were cleared of any wrongdoing in the contentious tackle that injured O’Driscoll.
The Lions lodged an official complaint over the incident, which left O’Driscoll with a dislocated shoulder but no charges were laid.
The All Blacks kick-started their build-up to Saturday’s second test with a light training session at the Basin Reserve that was open to the public and drew a crowd of about 1,000.
They have refused to buy into the argument over O’Driscoll and even the appearance of a woman brandishing a banner which read “Shame Tana Cheap Shot” failed to stir them.
Inside center Aaron Mauger said the team were too busy thinking about the match and were confident of wrapping up the series this weekend.
“The boys are in pretty good shape actually, they’re pretty excited about the possibility of finishing it off this week and putting the series beyond their reach,” Mauger said.
“If we play well and to our potential then we’ll finish the series off this Saturday night.”
The All Blacks dominated the Lions in every department in the series opener and Mauger warned the tourists things would be worse if there was no repeat of the foul weather in Christchurch.
“We’ve definitely got room for improvement. Certainly the weather can improve and that should improve our performance and theirs so it should be a better spectacle,” Mauger said.
“We weren’t allowed to show much too much because of the conditions but there’s certainly more to our game than we’ve shown and we’re looking forward to displaying that on Saturday night.” Blindside flanker Jerry Collins also predicted the All Blacks would raise their game this weekend but was wary about underestimating the Lions.
“We all realize we’re going to have to play better this Saturday because they’ll come back at us hard,” Collins said.
“You can’t win a three-round contest just by winning the first round so we’re in the same predicament as we were last week and that means we want to win.”
