The All Blacks left New Zealand for England on Thursday hoping to become the first team to defend the Rugby World Cup, the first New Zealand team to win the tournament overseas and the first team from any nation to win the Webb Ellis Trophy three times.
New Zealand won the Cup at home in 2011, ending a 24-year title drought, and will attempt to do so again under the same captain, Richie McCaw, but a new head coach, Steve Hansen, who was an assistant to Graham Henry four years ago.
The party that boarded an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Heathrow comprised 30 players and 20 support staff. One player, Ma'a Nonu will leave later because of a slight illness.
New Zealand goes into the tournament as favourite, having maintained the world No. 1 ranking for six years and having lost only three times since 2011.
Hansen said there was a growing "energy and excitement" in the squad as the World Cup neared which he was taking no steps to control.
"You don't want to be curbing anyone's enthusiasm," he said. "(The World Cup) is the pinnacle of anyone's rugby career.
"You want them to be excited and energized by that. We've just got to keep feeding it and hoping it keeps growing and growing and their confidence grows with it."
The World Cup begins on Sept. 18 when co-hosts England play Fiji at Twickenham. New Zealand's first match is against Argentina at Wembley on Sept. 21.
It has been drawn in Pool C with Argentina, Tonga, Namibia and Georgia. If they qualify for the quarterfinals, they will likely play either Ireland or France who are expected to finish first and second in Pool D.
The match will be played in Cardiff where New Zealand was beaten by France in the quarterfinals of the 2007 tournament, the last time the World Cup was held in the northern hemisphere.
The prospect of another quarterfinal meeting with France at Cardiff would seem likely to haunt the All Blacks but Hansen said it was not on the players' minds.
"The first thing is we can't fear that," he said. "There's going to be a lot of anxiety from the public about that but it will be what it will be.
"If we're good enough to get to the quarterfinal and whoever we play we have to deal with that."
Hansen said New Zealand had learned from the bitter experience of 2007, when he was also an assistant coach.
"The catchcry of 2011 was 'expect the unexpected,'" he said. "I don't think we did that in 2007.
"I think we rocked up a little arrogant (in 2007) and, like previous All Black teams over the years, may have been too comfortable having been the No. 1 side for a long time. We just expected it to happen.
"The funny thing about the World Cup is you know everyone's intensity is going to go through the roof because everyone wants to win it. So you just expect it. You've got to go and earn the right to win it."
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.