A crowd of about 6000 men, women and children braved heavy rain, winds gusting past 60 km/h and bone-chilling cold to fill the Morkel Stadium in the Strand on Tuesday to catch a glimpse of the 26-member All Blacks rugby squad training.

Forwards and backs practised apart. On the stadium field they practised handling skills in confined spaces by themselves, and on the school field coaches Wayne Smith and Tony Gilbert put them through heavy aerobics sessions to develop sprinting and power.

Star attraction at the fields was, as usual, Jonah Lomu, who has to be one of the world's most instantly recognizable rugby players.

But this was not a just crowd of gawkers. Those there knew their players, and they were there to see them - made familiar by television - live and up close.

On Wednesday morning the team will be announced at their luxury Somerset West Golf Estate hotel and they will undertake more light training.

On Thursday the squad moves residence to a Cape Town hotel where they will stay until the Test on Saturday. They stay in the Cape until Wednesday before returning to New Zealand.

Team manager Andrew Martin had his hands full with adults and children looking for autographs, while one mother of a schools rugby player who had visited the All Blacks training camp in New Zealand earlier in the year brought a cartoon tribute the schoolkids had put together commemorating the occasion and gave it to him.

A large squad of police were on hand to keep the fields clear, but their work was not hard. It was made easier by the split practice because if you couldn't see the backs on this field, you could see the forwards on the other.

This was about the only time the police earned their keep: making way through the crowd to get the players between the fields. - Sapa