“That’s what we got going in New Zealand, every training session we worked on our skills,” Byrne said.
 
“We worked on individual technique corrections, so that players who had poor tackling techniques, we worked on those.
 
“Players knew what their poor habits were.
 
“If it was their feet, if it was their shoulders and we worked on it every day.
 
“We didn’t have a window of skill, we did it every day.”
 
The same emphasis on skills was placed on every member of the team, whether it be a beefy prop or a fleet-footed back.
 
“It’s the tight-five who have been the biggest improvers because all through their life it’s just been catch and carries,” Byrne said.
 
“If you’ve got another five players who can carry or distribute, that’s another five opportunities you have to move the ball to another area of the field.
 
“The first thing we did was work on our ability to catch the ball in both hands.
 
“I know that sounds basic, but a lot of those tight forwards would run onto the ball and take it on their chests because that’s the safe way to catch.
 
“But it means if you take it on the chest you’re into contact, so you want to move the ball, take it in your hands and then you can move the ball.”
 
After arriving at the All Blacks in 2005, Byrne found glaring weaknesses in the squad’s skills.
 
He estimated that the team’s skill level improved between 30-40 per cent over the next 11 years.
 
“It is hard to put a number to it, but if you compared left to right it was massive because some players couldn’t do with their left side of their body what they could do with their right side of the body,” Byrne said.
 
“So, a left-hand running pass, for example, looked completely different, so when you analyse their running pass running right to left they had a strong running action and they did well and threw good passes.
 
“But then when they ran left to right they were weaker running lines, weaker pass.
 
“Basically that meant if you were running left to right in any time of the day, your game was weaker.
 
“If the field’s 70m and you set up a left to right play, they might be 15 metres in from touch. “When you set up a left to right play they were all out on the sideline, so players themselves were dictating that.”
 
Rugby fans have long marvelled at Carter’s ability and calmness under pressure.
 
But, according to Byrne, what made the All Blacks playmaker so special was his awareness of his body.
 
“I think Dan Carter was the most aware player,” Byrne said.
 
“When I work with players it’s like: ‘tell me what you thought of that’ or ‘tell me what your hands or feet or shoulders are doing.’
 
“A lot of players are like: ‘I don’t really know’ and so I say ‘let’s do it again and get a feel for what that feels like.’
 
“But with Dan Carter, every time you asked him a question he knew exactly what his body felt like — he was totally aware of all the movements his body was doing.
 
“He was pretty special in that area.
 
“And of course Beauden Barrett and Aaron Cruden, and all those really skilful players have that same ability, but I’ve never met or worked with anyone like that before, when you asked them a question about what you were doing and he was totally aware.
 
“Even in tight situations he was totally aware, so he was pretty special.”
 
Asked to assess the overall state of world rugby, Byrne believed that many teams had become obsessed with defence and had not placed enough energy on attacking detail.
 
“Everyone talks about the defence being the dominant part of the game at the moment,” Byrne said.
 
“It’s only dominant because the attack is not so great.
 
“You can’t run sideways and score tries.
 
“You don’t get five points for crossing the sideline, you only get five points if you cross the tryline.
 
“But the number of teams that are running sideways with the ball currently, you need to go forward and you need to go forward and pass the ball.”
 
“Defences have worked really hard on individual tackle technique and the attack hasn’t worked on passing technique.
 
“That’s something that I’ve tried to work really hard on.”
 
The 2015 World Cup underscored the dominance of the southern hemisphere with the four Rugby Championship nations shutting the north out of the semi-finals for the first time ever.
 
But Byrne cut the Six Nations sides some slack given that poor weather conditions often led to a more dour, set-piece style of play.
 
Meanwhile, Byrne provided a deep insight into the personalities of New Zealand’s last two World Cup-winning coaches — Graham Henry and Steve Hansen.
 
“They’re different personalities for a start,” Byrne said.
 
“Ted (Henry) was very intense and, Steve, he’s not outwardly intense, but he’s inwardly driven, very driven.
 
“But Ted was very intense about things, and what I respect about Ted was that he worked on himself as part of the group because there were some good coaches in his group and he learnt to let them get on with their job and he was fantastic at understanding what your role was.
 
“He was fantastic at challenging you to achieve your role and there were lots of times where you had lots of debates with him about stuff and he was sometimes just debating to make sure you were convinced with what you were saying.
 
“He managed the group really well and he had great assistants in Wayne Smith and Steve Hansen and myself and Mike Cron in that specialist coach area.
 
“And when Steve came in, he has a more relaxed way about him but it doesn’t mean that any of the disciplines or behaviours or aspects have been relaxed — it’s just his personality.
 
“He has what people refer to as EQ (emotional quotient), so he’s very good at reading people and understanding people.”
 
Byrne also revealed that the All Blacks’ great escape over Ireland in 2013 was the only time he felt the team went away from their core skills.
 
“The most frustrated I’ve felt in the coaching box was against Ireland a couple of years ago in the first half during the end of year tour,” Byrne said.
 
“We just never got our game going and we weren’t doing things that we should have been doing.
 
“It was our last game of the end of year tour and the boys were really, really tired...
 
“But then you just went to a point of just absolute pride when you saw them stick to their guns and do what they did in the last seven minutes.”

Le XV de départ: Spedding ; Fofana, Mermoz, Fickou, Vakatawa ; (o) Trinh-Duc, (m) Machenaud ; Camara, Chouly, Lauret ; Maestri, Flanquart ; Slimani, Guirado, Poirot.  
 
Remplaçants: Chat, Pelo, Atonio, Vahaamahina, Goujon, Bézy, Plisson, Medard.