Will Greenwood reflects on his experiences of facing the All Blacks
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Writing in The Telegraph, former England centre Will Greenwood reflects on his experiences against the All Blacks.
"Want an insight into the mind of an All Black? They don’t swap shirts at the end of games. Or at least they didn’t when I was playing. It was almost as if they were saying that their whole lives had been about getting a black shirt, why the hell would they want a white one?
They have a mindset that is unique. It’s what sets them apart. They don’t do physical pain. I was laughed at in the tunnel when I twisted my knee and was on crutches in 2002. When I got winded earlier in the same match, they walked past and said all manner of things about my manliness, none of it pleasant."
"John Mitchell, the former England forwards coach and the first Kiwi I really spent time with, used to have a favourite phrase when talking about the contact area: “Let the dogs see the rabbit.” He loved it. It was physical confrontation, doing the tough jobs. It was what he was about, the rugby DNA that runs through the national side from their first tour of the British Isles to the team England face today."
"I could have watched the quite staggering game of rugby between New Zealand and Australia in Hong Kong last Saturday 100 times. I know the forwards will tell me that one team can’t scrummage, Australia, and the other can’t win a line-out, New Zealand, but oh my goodness. Pace, intensity and lung-busting desire. The game was a frightening gauntlet thrown down to all the players in the northern hemisphere."
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