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The halftime speech that rallied the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup final
By Ned Lester
A new series has revealed the halftime speech that fired New Zealand up before returning to the field to lock horns with South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final.
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After 40 minutes in the final, the All Blacks were down six points and a captain; an unprecedented deficit on the sport’s grandest stage, and one that no team has ever overcome.
The red card to captian Sam Cane and the accuracy of Handre Pollard’s boot painted a grim picture for the Kiwis’ championship hopes.
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For the coaching staff, the challenge was clear.
“We just had to get on with it and not get too emotional or blurred or angry. We know what it means to drop a forward and go down, but it’s the mental stuff, that’s the challenge,” head coach Ian Foster said when reflecting on the final in NZR+’s latest season of In Their Own Words.
Foster’s thoughts were shared by mental skills coach Gilbert Enoka, the longest serving member of the All Blacks staff.
Enoka’s storied career with the All Blacks had seen him contribute to two World Cup winning campaigns, in 2011 and 2015, priming him for moments like these.
“My role at halftime is usually more observational,” Enoka stated for the series. “What pricks my senses is when I hear silence and I feel what’s existing in the space.
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“I quite often have thoughts which I don’t say, but in that moment I wanted to make sure that I didn’t look back in time and say ‘I thought it and wish I’d said it’.
“At times, all you need is one person to say one thing that all of a sudden gives you the power to believe.”
Enoka had a simple message, one that invoked the pride in the All Blacks jersey and inspired the sense of hope that was so desperately needed in that moment.
“Boys, no one expects us to get the job done here, but wow, it’d be a hell of a story if we won. You’d be part of All Black folklore.
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“Go write the story.”
Short and sweet, the speech hit home for the players, as an inspired second half saw the team keep the Springboks scoreless and draw the lead back to within one point, with multiple chances to take the lead.
Jordie Barrett reflected on the speech, saying: “When Gilbert said ‘what a story this would be’, you almost wanted to stand up and run out that tunnel.”
Richie Mo’unga added his thoughts in that moment: “We’ve been through it all, we’ve been through thick and thin, why can’t we be that team that can do it under these circumstances?”
Dalton Papali’i added: “We’re the All Blacks, we’re not going away, we’re going to go until the end.”
While the team did indeed fight until the very end, a one-point deficit survived the final 23 minutes and it was the Springboks who claimed their fourth Webb Ellis Cup that night in Paris.
Having since retired from the All Blacks, Enoka walks away knowing he said his piece and inspired a performance that took the biggest game in the history of the sport right down to the wire.
Reminds me of that epic scene from that film. That halftime speech. Al Pacino’s character, describing the fight for the inches. Rousing stuff. Gooseflesh.
Except that team actually fought back from behind and won.
If it wasn’t for the ref the Boks should have won the ‘87 World Cup. If my Aunty had balls she would have been my Uncle. 😉
Time to move on. Two great sides, great game and any side could have won. Period.
For goodness sake. I have never seen such cry babies in my life. Your captain couldn't tackle. Your fault. Fix it. Grow some balls. You will play with 14 again if you cannot tackle right. Stop feeling sorry for yourself…. I once had so much respect for the ABs. That seems like such a long time ago. Face it. You are bad bad loosers. My goodness. Just Grow up please!
Bryce Lawrence.
What a load of old cobblers… a big arse story heroically making out Enoka to be some sort of a Kiwi Mr Miyagi. Lol…
We LOST…
I sat next to Enoka years ago as a young adult. When the guy had hair and played a little Volleyball.. Seemed to me back then… like a bloke with a whopping great opinion of himself … and not a lot seems to have changed since back then… except a whole bunch of half wits glorifying the guy for being paid wads of cash for coming up with a few inspiring words in a game we ended up losing…. An indisciplined captain got a red card for a pretty silly tackle… and we were outplayed by 15 south Africans…. We can all sit about offering some fictitious script and pitch heroic twaddle… but the guys few words meant little… I don’t think professional All Black Sportsmen need a shrink to… “point them in the right direction at half time”… think most of those guys deep down realized that 14 guys would result in a loss… love the way they played… but we still lost… and the horror filled AB record of Foster ended… Thank the heavens… with the sane disturbing loss of previous results against the English… Irish…. Agies…… etc… stop waxing the lyrical about deep seated AB emotional bollocks… we got beaten… as Razor said after a previous Foster led thumping of the ABS… All Blacks are not supposed to lose…. I couldn’t help laughing reading this bollocks article
It’s so cringey. And then all of us get tarred as fans who can’t handle losing. For the love of god, IT’S JUNE, please can we move on.
The thing is though, that speech was good content. And now they’re like “where can we use it”, darn it. Cause it didn’t work.
Well said Chris. A shrink certainly did not change the way the ABs played in the 2nd half.
Finally someone said it. Good on you mate
Trying to dramatise and conjure up traumatic times. We've moved on, time to look forward. No one wants to wallow in the build up to the final, we all know what happened!
All Blacks got denied a legal try. Wonder why? Do you think it was incompetence for not knowing that you cannot go back more than 2 phases?
This article is about 29 words spoken by a fringe member of the coaching staff who is not involved with the team anymore.
It reads more like an advert for / endorsement of a service provider by a friendly party. Does the head coach agree with the credit being given to the “mental coach” for the improved 2nd half performance?
Different tactics maybe?
Maybe they lost because of his speech? Different perspective.
The change in tactics contributed more I think.
Is this from that cheesy kiwi rip-off of the Chasing the Sun documentary?
There is a documentary called ‘time of our lives’ about NZ getting second in the cricket World Cup. Now that’s what I call embarrassing.
Let’s face it - even at 14 men the ABs should have won that game. Appalling officiating; they couldn’t even follow their own rules.
The ABs went behind on the scoreboard from minute 2 I recall.
So with 15, 14, 14v14 - couldn’t overtake the Boks on the scoreboard. Even with almost all the possession in the last 10 and 14 v 14. Thats called beat.
Legends. Epic final by two teams who refused to give up, the better team won.
I wish the game would be remembered for that. PSDT’s performance, Jordie Barret, Kolisi…. It was a game for the ages.
Let’s not get too wound up by all the bitching and moaning in the comments sections and in the media.
Good points. Mo’unga, Kriel, and Ardie Savea deserve a mention too.