World Cup odds stacked against the All Blacks
One from seven. Those are the numbers All Blacks coach Ian Foster has had written up on a whiteboard ahead of the side departing today for the World Cup in France.
One from seven is the number of Rugby World Cups New Zealand has won away from home.
The All Blacks flew out of Auckland on Friday, heading to London to play the Springboks at Twickenham next weekend in what will be their final game ahead of their World Cup opener against France in Paris on 9 September.
"It's a massive occasion and we can't wait," Foster said. "But one out of seven is a reminder of the size of the challenge facing us."
In 1987 and 2011 the All Blacks won in Aotearoa, while their success in England in 2015 saw them become the first side to win back-to-back World Cups.
Their worst peformance was the 2007 quarterfinal loss when the tournament was officially hosted by France, but the All Blacks lost to the hosts in Cardiff, the only time they have failed to at least reach the semi-final stage of the tournament.
All 33 players selected have boarded the flight with no one ruled out with a late injury. However Foster doubts lock Brodie Retallick and flanker Shannon Frizell will be fit to play in the tournament opener.
Retallick is still recovering from the knee injury which forced him off the field in the second Bledisloe Cup test against Australia in Dunedin a couple of weeks ago, while Frizell has a hamstring strain, suffered a couple of days ago during a speed session at training.
"So that's a bit niggly for us. We've got plenty of cover for the South African test with (lock) Josh Lord and (flanker) Sampeni Finau already over there."
Having seen the likes of French playmaker Romain Natmack ruled out from the World Cup due to injury only recently, Foster maintains he's not nervous about next week's test against South Africa and the impact it may have on his squad.
"I'm nervous from a performance perspective, but you don't go into test matches worrying about who is going to get injured. You go into test matches preparing to win and know we've got to be at 100 percent.
"If you go into a game with your mind half somewhere else, that's when you do find yourself in danger... for us the Twickenham game is a big test and we want to do well so we can go into the French game with a lot of confidence."
Foster is adamant he won't be holding players back from the Twickenham test to keep them safe for the World Cup.
"I won't be protecting anyone. If we have got people that have got a slight ding then they won't play. There will be no sentiment about trying to put people in cotton wool. You don't win World Cups by putting people in cotton wool."
Despite the one-in-seven statistic, Foster is upbeat about his side's chances.
"It's a well-tested group. It's a group that has gone through a lot of adversity. In the past where we have got tested on adversity is actually in the World Cup, and I think winning one out of seven World Cups away reflects that.
"But this group has gone through adversity and figured out solutions and they are growing in confidence about how they lead themselves on the park and how they play, so I feel we are prepared as well as we can be."
