Phenomenal build-up to first Test

RUGBY: Over here, the World Cup is increasingly over there, all the more so as the All Black Test campaign cranks up. Whether it be your first or 20th visit to these islands, you couldn't but be struck by the sheer phenomenon which is the All Blacks. Gerry Thornley reports from Dunedin

As many turned up in Dunedin yesterday for a public All Blacks training session as would be the case for a major AIL game - and talk about a slick operation.

"Inside - World Cup hots up," ventures a small sub-heading in a Monday morning sports supplement, though you have to turn to page six for a temperature gauge from Japan and South Korea. Rugby, and all things All Black, are paramount and interest is hotting up after the error-strewn but impressive 64-10 win over Italy last week. The squad announcement for this week on Sunday afternoon, on the all-day, pay-per-view Rugby Channel, was the most important sports event of the day.

This had confirmed the recall of three of the all-conquering Crusaders' team, full back Leon McDonald, number eight Scott Robertson and tighthead prop Greg Somerville at the expense of Christian Cullen - omitted after a stunning 100-metre try from under his own posts in the 80th minute against Italy which merely confirmed that any other country would love to have him - Otago lock Simon Maling and injured tighthead Kees Meeuws.

Thus there are 15 from the Super 12 squad expanded to 23 to accommodate the return of Tana Umaga (who faces a late fitness test along with Mark Robinson) from a recent operation, and with many of the Canterbury combinations likely to be restored on Saturday against Ireland in Carisbrook, it's anticipated that the local Otago quartet will all be on the bench. This may in part explain why the attendance is predicted to be around 25,000 of the 34,000 capacity as the All Black roadshow moves to the rolling hills of Dunedin.

Even so, come 4.00 p.m. at the Peter Johnstone Park in the outlying suburb of Mosgiel yesterday, there were a good 3-4,000 supporters ringing the roped-in passageway from the dressing-rooms and the accompanying pitch. The heroes know how to milk it. Hands are held up for high fives en route to the pitch, providing kids with the highlights of their year.

As anyone amongst a similar sized crowd in Stradbrook would testify, the branding of the addidas All Blacks is peerless in the rugby world. It's the little things which underline the professional approach of it all. Six speakers are dotted around the ground. Postcards, posters and autograph cards are handed out for free by some of the dozen event managers in attendance. Taking a leaf out of the silver fern, branding of the Irish team (who trained in private at the same ground earlier in the day) has improved immeasurably in recent years, but it still has some way to go.

And what a show the All Blacks put on. Taking the field as two distinct teams, they first played a game which can only be described as a quick-witted combination of football and tip rugby with a smaller, size four football. The touring Irish party could possibly beat them at the football part (one imagines David Humphreys and Ronan O'Gara would be particularly useful, and of course the boy wonder) though Andrew Mehrtens scored a cracker into the top corner which anyone in Japan or South Korea would be happy with, turning away with his jersey over his head in justifiable celebration.

All around are those still entitled to dream of inheriting this rich heritage. One of the thousands of children attending turned plaintively to his mother who said: "I know, you want to see them playing some real rugby." The MC explains some of the drills being conducted as the sun sets behind a line of pine trees, briefly blinding most of the attendance and giving the hills at the other end a golden glow. After some defensive drills, they use the full pitch again for a game of cone ball, a modified form of touch rugby, in the descending darkness.

Despite that, the majority of the children in attendance stayed around for the players to emerge from their showers and form lengthy, excitable but orderly queues for autographs. The most popular are Tana Umaga, Justin Marshall, Mehrtens and of course, Jonah Lomu, who is accompanied by three minders. A job done and their adoring public sated, they'll retreat behind closed doors for the rest of week.

The unseasonal sunshine and dry season in the south island is expected to last a few more days but the weather is set to turn nasty before the weekend, ensuring a predictably wet encounter at Carisbrook on Saturday. Time was when this would have probably suited the tourists, but it's hard to think that will be the case this week. The All Black maul remains a trademark pillar of forward power and Somerville's return is likely to stiffen their scrum, two areas of concern about the Irish team.

It's a slightly sad commentary on the modern game that there has been such a generally critical appraisal of a nine-try 64-10 rout of Six Nations opponents, but then these are the standards which the Blacks set themselves and four million pundits demand.

Claiming that an early try had led to "a lack of attention to detail" the All Blacks assistant coach Robbie Deans said: "We weren't as accurate as we could have been and there wasn't the urgency in carrying the ball, and the defensive line lacked a bit of aggression and we didn't move the bodies off the ball (at the breakdown)." Deans added that the slowness of their ruck ball, flat allignment and a lack of depth which, coupled with an over-eagerness to dip their bread, saw players over-run the ball - most notably Caleb Ralph, who might otherwise have had about six tries rather than the mere three he scored. "The intensity level is going to go up," concluded Deans.

Whether it transpires or not, Ireland's relatively impressive warm-up win over the Divisional XV on Saturday sent out a reminder of the near epic 40-29 victory which the All Blacks were extended to in Dublin last November, and has heightened the view that they'll give the All Blacks a good rattle here.

The All Black backroom staff will have poured through the videos ever since although when Warren Gatland was sounded out for some insider information since his departure a few months ago, he understandably declined to do so. "You're good enough to do that without getting help from me," he told them. And, unfortunately, they probably are.

Alan Quinlan (bruised knee) and Eric Miller (bruised arm) didn't train yesterday though as expected Malcom O'Kelly did take part in his first full contact session since the squad came together a fortnight beforehand after a successful recovery from his shin splints. Peter Stringer also had to retire early after sustaining a neck injury, but is expected to be okay.