Living up to the role of the Men in Black

There's a saying in the Land of the Long White Cloud that being the All Blacks' coach is a more difficult job than being New Zealand prime minister. Overstatement? Not really. "I would think that's a fair enough comment," chuckles Warren Gatland, the Connacht Director of Rugby who played for the All Blacks 17 times from 1988 to 1991.

For starters, there are at least 200,000 playing pundits, and a host more beside, who have their views on the All Blacks' team.

For Gatland, like most Kiwis, the dream began when "I was five or six" - i.e. basically when he began to play the game. "I guess I was like most kids. I remember as a young kid listening to Test matches on the radio, and watching them on TV, then going to play rugby matches on Saturday morning, then watching club matches with your dad on Saturday afternoons."

It's not strictly true that the first present any father buys his boy is a rugby ball. "It could be the grandfather as well," Gatland points out. Early heroes for this young wing-forward, he made the transition to hooker after leaving school, were Bryan Williams, Grant Batty and Ian Kirkpatrick.

From playing mini-rugby in one of 12 local teams in Hamilton alone, Gatland was one of the select few who climbed the ladder all the way to the top. The hardest step was actually provincial rugby.

"I played for Waikato in my first year when we won promotion from the second division, and there was quite a difference between the top four or five teams in the first division and the rest."

Ask him if he remembers the first time he officially pulled on an All Black jersey and Gatland barely pauses for thought. It was against Western Australia in 1988. "Lots of things go through your mind in the dressing-room when you pull on that shirt.

"The good thing about the All Blacks is that you have team meetings with players during which you are reminded of your responsibility to the jersey; of the famous names who played for the All Blacks; of everyone who would give their right arm to do it. You're also told about their number of All Blacks who only ever wore it once. You're reminded what an honour and a responsibility it is."

Suddenly Gatland would overhear pedestrians walking by and saying "that's Warren Gatland." It was a step up the social ladder, but with the extra responsibilities came a few benefits in kind. "You might be buying a house and someone will recognise the name and pull a few strings for you."

He admits it can change a man, but he retained the same "bunch of friends" and remained the same personality. He never actually played in a Test match, but subbed for them countless times in the days before tactical substitutions and World Cups.

Life for an All Black after being an All Black can be hard to adjust to, though not for him. It's the best grounding in the world game for coaching, and now he has his own son and daughter. "It's entirely up to him if he wants to play rugby and become an All Black. He can play soccer or gaelic football while he's here. It's entirely up to him."

Then he pauses. "Mind you, he gets exposed to so much rugby that I think he's been indoctrinated already." As it was for his father before him and his father before him. Yea, from generation to generation.