It was standing room only at the All Blacks' first team naming press conference of the season. Sure, it was mostly due to the fact that it was held in a smaller room at the Heritage Auckland than usual and they didn't put out any chairs, but it was still a fairly sizeable crowd that greeted Dane Coles and Dalton Papalii, two men who started out their junior careers playing league.
Dalton Papalii and Dane Coles during a New Zealand All Blacks team naming and media and session ahead of the test match against Tonga this weekend. Photo: © Copyright Andrew Cornaga 2021 / Photosport Ltd
So it was understandable that both were excited about playing on Mt Smart Stadium, the vacated home of the Warriors, this Saturday night. Coles was indeed so fired up he accepted an offer from Sir Peter Leitch to show him around the stadium on Wednesday, which would have been an intense experience.
Papalii, who will start at openside this weekend, then managed to rattle off his favourite All Black number sevens without mentioning or noticing that Josh Kronfeld (now a TV reporter) was standing right in front of him. While that got a few laughs, the main man everyone wanted to see was a smiling and relaxed Ian Foster.
The All Black coach has every reason to feel that way. He won't admit it, but this next three week stint will be a series of morale-boosting hidings that he wasn't able to have in his first season in charge.
2020's All Black record makes for stark reading: three wins from six tests, including a first ever loss to Argentina. Only winning half their schedule is the worst All Black return since the infamous 1998 season, so with Foster's contract up for renewal at the end of this season, it's clear that he wants as much lead in time to what will be break fixtures against the Wallabies and Springboks.
So for now, Tonga and Fiji are getting used for that purpose. On one hand it's a great opportunity for the Pasifika teams (Manu Samoa are also playing the Māori All Blacks on Saturday) to express themselves together on NZ soil for the first time since the 2011 World Cup.
On another, more bleak one, it's a sad reminder at just how much ground has been lost by the Tongans and Samoans since that tournament.
Head coach Ian Foster during a New Zealand All Blacks training session ahead of the test match against Tonga this weekend. Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2021
Cast your minds back 10 years: Manu Samoa came into the tournament having comfortably beaten the Wallabies in Sydney. They boasted a stacked team, possibly the best ever assembled and got within two scores of beating the Springboks. Tonga managed to go one better, beating eventual finalists France without even really playing that well.
Of course, we know what happened next. Lack of funding, mismanagement and the ever-encroaching player recruitment strategy from schools in New Zealand has reduced both teams to what they will be this weekend.
While the All Blacks have the luxury of calling on a 36-man squad of Super Rugby players to take the field, Manu Samoa aren't even in the position to accept a match against them and the Tongans have named 13 debutants with the bulk of those coming out of club rugby. It is also worth remembering that two years ago the All Blacks beat a full strength Tongan side by 85 points.
So it's no wonder one of the questions Foster was asked was around whether this fixture could actually have safety concerns for the Tongan players, given the massive disparity in experience and ability. He seemed baffled by the suggestion, saying that a test match is a test match and those players, no matter what level they've come from, would bring that intensity.
And he's probably right. It's unlikely the All Blacks are going to be dishing out hits that are any harder than from the club fields of Papatoetoe or Petone that the Tongan players are coming from. But what sort of concerns this impending scoreboard bloodbath will have for the legacy of Tongan rugby, well, that's a different story.
