All Blacks are chokers

Rumour has it that when the All Blacks felt the plane dip to the right after climbing out of Sydney Airport on Saturday night they all let out a resounding cheer. For once they were far happier to be heading out to Africa than turning left across the Tasman to what would have been a chilly reception in their home country.

Ruben Thorne denied it upon his team's arrival in Durban, but there can be little doubting that the Bledisloe Cup was the big issue for the All Blacks in 2002. By the time they play for that trophy again, it will be six years since they last won it and a phobia is starting to develop in the Land of the Long White Cloud.

While it is true that rugby is only a sport and should not really be taken that seriously, anyone who has been to New Zealand will know that rugby is far more than just a sport to the Kiwis. And this time there would be good reason for all the anguish and over-reaction.

Yes, the All Blacks have only lost once this season. But the record books for the past few seasons show that they have now lost eight of the last 11 matches against Australia. What is significant, and particularly galling for a New Zealander, however, is the reality that this record could have been very different but for the last few minutes of three of those defeats.

The Kiwis have now developed a quite uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It happened on New Zealand soil in 2000 when John Eales kicked a penalty as the final whistle blew. It happened again in 2001, with Toutai Kefu scoring the decisive try of the Tri-Nations and the Bledisloe Cup just as the siren operator was reaching out to touch the button.

So what does all this mean? Were Australia just lucky, or was there something else in it. I wrote last week that what the Springboks lacked against the likes of the All Blacks and Wallabies was mental strength, that self-belief that was necessary to turn them into winners against teams that have beaten them with monotonous regularity over the past six seasons.

It was interesting then to read the comments of Springbok skipper Corne Krige after the Sydney game. Krige is in little doubt: The Wallabies win a good proportion of their games just on mental strength.

And faced with that mental strength and the Australian unflappability under pressure, teams much better than the All Blacks have crumbled. Which is precisely what happened to the All Blacks last Saturday.

The narrow defeats have become so regular that it has started to become an obsession with the Kiwis, and not just the players. Going into the final 10 minutes of the Sydney match, you could almost sense the All Blacks and the nation as a collective thinking "Here we go again. We are not far enough ahead".

As the Aussies picked up momentum and got the bit between the teeth, panic began to spread through the All Black ranks. It reminded me of my trips to Boet Erasmus in Port Elizabeth during my days as a student in Grahamstown. Year after year I made the trek down to the coast to watch my beloved Natal team tackle Eastern Province. For at least three years in a row I drove home having seen Natal squander a lead to lose.

It started becoming a habit and you could almost sense the Natal players anticipating the furious EP comeback on what had become their hoodoo ground. Even in 1990, when Craig Jamieson's team won the Currie Cup, they had to sweat it out in the final minutes of a Port Elizabeth league match which they should have won comfortably.

Why does this happen? I have no doubt that players do develop a mental block against certain things. It was evident in the All Black play in the middle stages of the second half. The match was theirs for the taking. All they had to do was score once more and the All Blacks would have been gone.

But they seemed almost scared of trying anything. They had the ball to play with, but instead of being bold they kicked it away. Then Andrew Mehrtens missed the goalkick which would have put them eight points ahead.

For Kiwi fans it must have been infuriating and may have been even more frustrating for the fact it was so predictable. When you speak to sports psychologists they talk of the importance of the last 10 minutes before halftime and the last 10 minutes of the match. That is when the mentally strong teams score their points and when the weak teams fall away.

The All Blacks were able to do it against the Boks a few weeks ago for one simple reason - they do not have a mental block against South Africa. They have won 10 of the past 13 games against them. They do have a mental block against the Aussies.

Australia, as unflappable as they are, may well have a mental block of their own - they have not won too often in South Africa in the post-isolation era. They know they are better than the Boks on their home turf or in matches played on neutral territory. But somehow they always conspire to lose in Africa (they have only won twice here since 1992).

On top of that, they appear to be a little intimidated by Ellis Park (their journalists have told me as much). All of which makes their trip to South Africa extremely interesting, and could be a spur to the All Blacks when they tackle the Springboks in Durban this Saturday.

They know they can place one hand on the trophy if they win against the Boks as the Aussies may have a mental block to overcome the following week. And the All Blacks know all about mental blocks.