“It's only by putting yourself under pressure that you can raise the threshold of performance. Ideally, your training should be more difficult than your match. So when it comes to the game you feel like you've got more time - hopefully. The training sessions are not so much for building physical fitness now, that's done as individuals. A team session now is to have the training simulate game conditions as closely as possible.”

Robbie Deans (Canterbury NPC Coach, 1997-2004, All Black Coach, 2001-2003)