Rugby World Cup: New Zealand jittery ahead of showdown with France

Having twice had their World Cup dreams abruptly shattered by the French, there is understandable apprehension in New Zealand this week about Saturday's match against Les Bleus at Eden Park.

The All Blacks announced their team on Thursday for the clash which will almost certainly decide which team wins Pool A, but there is no disguising the fact that the Eden Park encounter is anything but a run-of-the-mill group game.

New Zealand have not won the World Cup since the inuagural tournament in 1987 and in 1999 and 2007, despite being overwhelming favourites, they were sent packing by inspired  French teams in the knockout stages.

"I'm sure it provides an edge, it'd be silly if we ignored that," coach Graham Henry, who was also in charge four years ago, said on Thursday.

"A lot of the players playing on Saturday were there in 2007 and a lot of them were born in '99," he quipped dryly.

Saturday's test will be the 50th meeting between the two countries and though New Zealand have won the lion's share — 36 to 12 with one draw — the French still manage to pop up every now and then and burst the All Blacks' bubble.

It happened most famously in the two World Cup encounters in London and Cardiff, but also in 1994 when they won back-to-back Tests in New Zealand, and again in 2009 when they claimed an unlikely victory in Dunedin.

The unpredictable genius of French back play is often cited as the reason for these upsets, as is the exuberant passion of the Men in Blue when roused.

New Zealand centre Conrad Smith said on Thursday, however, that he thought the All Blacks also had plenty of passion but were less open about showing it.

"It's just the nature of who we are," he said. "We can be passionate about it, but we don't create a song and dance. [The French] are a lot more extroverted with the way they show it.

"We can be boiling inside and really motivated, we don't have to show it on the outside. As long as the passion's there."

In terms of animation, Smith could have been talking about any one of the All Blacks forwards who were wheeled out to face the media on Thursday, with the exception of 36-year-old lock Brad Thorn.

His voice almost a whisper, the gnarled 6ft 5in (1.96m) former rugby league player spoke about how much he relished the battles with the French.

"All I know is that I personally enjoy playing them, I first played them in 2003 and each time I play them, I enjoy the contest," he said.

"The French can play a really attractive game of rugby, it can be out of the box, it's quite unique. They can throw the ball wide off their own try line or whatever, so it makes for interesting footy."

Of course, New Zealand will survive in the tournament even if they suffer a third World Cup reverse to the French on Saturday, and will just be presented with a different route to the final.

There has been much talk from the camp about respect for the French and if there were any nerves, an outwardly relaxed coaching staff did well to hide them.

"We're excited, not twitchy, there's a big difference," assistant coach Steve Hansen said on Wednesday.

The All Blacks camp has dismissed the jittery stories in the local media about how the France team, with scrum-half Morgan Parra starting at fly-half, was below par. Outside the camp, the self-doubt remains.

All Blacks great Colin Meads summed it up with seven words in his column in The Herald newspaper. 'When it comes to France: be wary.'