In these days of professional corporatized rugby, it's been great to see the All Blacks play in three different countries against teams other than South Africa and Australia. 

Just like the old days! Nick Farr Jones told me in 1992 that a rugby tour was like sex. When it was good it felt great and when it was bad it still felt pretty good.

This All Black tour has been great. The selection panel and coaching staff should immediately be given an extension through to the end of the 2007 World Cup. 

They have delivered on every front. Strategic flexibility, inspired selection, tactical flexibility, media accessibility, player development, technical upskilling, all round on-field leadership, inspired player morale and first class results.

The Tests ended in Paris with one of the most brilliant All Black displays I have ever seen. Every individual played superbly, dominated their immediate opponent, executed the plan, and combined with team-mates emotionally and physically. 

Who will ever forget the French flying the white flag and opting for grandfather scrums? And who'll forget the look of satisfaction on Anton Oliver's face when he heard what the French were asking for. It reminded me of Russell Crowe in Gladiator.
       

It all got quite tense in the ten minutes immediately after halftime when the Welsh exploded with an early try. I was sitting in front of Colin Meads and John Graham and all of us were tempted I think to bring on the old hands like Byron Kelleher and Oliver. 

Henry kept his nerve and the players delivered. What a boost to team morale, confidence, and the future. I think the oldest player we had on the field was 25 years-old. This team delivered a great result against a fired-up, talented team who had run England, New Zealand and South Africa close in the past twelve months. This was great man-management and great leadership.

I have felt for some time that this crop of All Blacks could turn into something special. I was amazed at what happened in South Africa at the end of the Tri-Nations, but kept faith in the wise heads running the team with their combined knowledge of current Southern and Northern Hemisphere rugby. I was determined to watch the games in person to see it all unfold.

I took an overnight flight from New York to Rome for the first game feeling that Italy could prove irksome. 

'JK' (John Kirwan) had spent a lot of time studying our Tri-Nations performance and had spent the week in discussions with Clive Woodward on where to attack the All Blacks. 

It was fantastic to walk with the crowd to the stadium and it was great to see so many Italian supporters passionately wearing the colors. 

My last trip there to see England was spoiled by the absence of Italians with most of the tickets being sold to English supporters. Without the Six Nations ticket allocation issue, locals were able to come and support their side. 

Unfortunately, the Azurri never fired and Dan Carter ripped them apart from the get-go. Conrad Smith and Tana Umaga looked a potent combination in midfield but were not really tested in the absence of Cristian Stoica.
  

I stayed at the Hotel Russie, in the Piazza del Popolo. 
It's a great spot and I was lucky enough to be given the Popolo suite which had a big balcony on the top floor overlooking the Piazza. The concierge told me that Brad Pitt had been in the room for four to five weeks previously while shooting Ocean's Twelve there. I hope they changed the sheets!

It was great to see an afternoon game of rugby again in terrific sunshine and dry conditions, paving the way for a walk through the Spanish Steps, the via Condotti, and the via Del Corso with Murray Mexted. This took us longer than usual as Murray remains a cult figure for many young Kiwis. It was like walking the streets with Brad Pitt.

I headed back to New York on Sunday morning feeling optimistic. On Friday night I crossed the Atlantic again. 
I stayed in the Angel (along with half of New Zealand) which everyone will remember as being the ultimate rugby pub.

It's opposite The Arms Park and 100 metres from the Millennium Stadium. Notorious perhaps for the sending home of Keith Murdoch. 

Ben and Sally made the trip up again and Jim O'Mahony, a gregarious half Irish/half Pommy now turned Aussie rugby lover, joined us. Jim spent a few years in New Zealand running Lion Breweries in Christchurch before running Toohey's in Sydney and then heading up Lion's venture in China. He's a great admirer of the All Blacks and no friend of the Welsh so he made ideal company.
  

His controversial regionalization plan has resulted in massive performance improvement in Wales and the evidence is in their international team's performance. The structure of the game is now solid and the organization of the national squad has certainly benefited from Graham Henry and Steve Hansen's involvement. 

Mike Ruddock is the perfect coach for Wales right now and he has surrounded himself with a passionate, committed support staff. His forwards' coach made the headlines when forced to apologize for a remark something along the lines of: "New Zealand is an island full of no hopers in the middle of nowhere." He retracted this statement, apologizing, "I'm sorry. It is two islands in the middle of nowhere full of no hopers."

So the flames were being fanned. And what an exciting game it was. Our young team ran, and ran, and ran. The Welsh played with fire and with more accurate goalkicking would have made it very difficult indeed. 

We held our nerve and put a great morale booster into our memory bank. Great times followed with the Angel full of upbeat Kiwis looking forward to the big game to come. 

We ended up in a restaurant in Penerth with the makings of a pretty good All Black pack - Sean Fitzpatrick, Murray Mexted and Andy Haden. I hadn't seen Andy for a while and it was great to see him fighting hard and transmitting optimism and confidence in his ongoing health battle. He is, of course, well remembered in Wales for being a major contributor to our 51-year run of success!

From Cardiff on Sunday Jimmy and I left a little bedraggled and worse for wear for Heathrow for a three-day stint in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. Whilst rugby, of course, is very important in neighbouring Argentina (who were flying high after their fourth successive victory over France) no one in Brazil has any interest in the game. They are devotees of soccer. 

I did catch up with a few Argentinos during our trip and talked to them about the future of Argentina in the world game. Their performances against France and Ireland were superb. Their issue is they cannot bring television or economic impact to the game at the moment. 

Surely though, the IRB should intervene. Ideally, I would much rather see the Tri-Nations add Argentina to our fold rather than leave them out in the cold or, worse still, see them join the Six Nations. The Six Nations is a possibility given that most of the players are based in Italy or France so it is not inconceivable for the team to base themselves in the Northern Hemisphere for a couple of months. 

This would in the long term strengthen Argentina, strengthen the Six Nations and weaken the Southern Hemisphere.
       

A noble sacrifice for a Pom but exactly the right decision for a rugby lover. 

England versus Australia was average. We watched it in Kitty O'Shea's along with a bunch of other Kiwis who were in Paris for the real game. Watching England-Australia as a curtainraiser is not as interesting as watching Auckland Grammar and Kings but it does pass the time. 

I bumped into Lloyd Morrison in the pub. He is the leading voice behind the Silver Fern as the New Zealand flag idea. The pub was heaving with Silver Ferns; not one example of our current outdated flag in sight. The sooner we adopt a go forward, individual, identity behind the modern treatment of the silver fern the better.

We left for the magnificent Stade de France immediately after a very satisfactory Southern Hemisphere win for Australia, in the knowledge that the Africans would certainly hammer the shower of Scotland. 

Paul Fitton was regaling us with tales of the World Cup, England's certain victory over the Wallabies alongside the double of Great Britain beating the Kangaroos in the rugby league test. This quieted down following the last 10 minutes at Twickenham, and was further dampened by a text message from Ben on the Kangaroos result. 
   

It is a sad day when you hear an Englishman supporting the French. The first twenty minutes were tough. The first half was tough. The try just before halftime gave us a fantastic platform and the try immediately after the break was a joy to watch. 

From then on it was heaven. It reminded me of the second half of the World Cup semi in 1999…in reverse.

Fifteen-man rugby based on pace, power, possession and position. At times, it looked as if we were playing premier league soccer with Collins and McCaw twice indulging in amazing one-two's. A.J. Hackett spoke to the team before the game and we should consider having him do this at every match.

I once had a T-shirt that said "Nothing is as painful as regret" written on it. 

The All Blacks in Paris will regret Rien. They delivered. 

The official dinner didn't end until 3am and our unofficial celebration in the Hemingway bar at the Ritz didn't end until then either. 

Bobby Skinstad, the former Springbok skipper, joined us and said that it was the best All Black performance he had ever seen. 

Stephen Jones in the Sunday Times said "None of Australia, New Zealand nor South Africa can yet be said to be developing proper rounded international forwards." A lone, one-eyed voice in the crowd. And someone who obviously missed the obliteration of the French tight five on Saturday, the destruction of the famous French back-row, the performance of Harrison, Paul, Smith, and Waugh at Twickenham, and the power of Burger, van Niekerk and Venter. 

Unfortunately, I doubt Clive Woodward has the same one-eyed affliction. Bring on the Lions!
                  

  
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