All Blacks v France
Kick-off: 7:05pm Saturday 19 July
FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton
Live blog updates on RNZ
The All Blacks were in for a surprise after starting a blood biomarker programme last year, finding out that around the third of the squad is lacking in Vitamin D. Patrick Tuipulotu, one of the affected players, said he was "being a bloke" by not even being aware of what a vitamin deficiency was before he was told.
"I think as men we really get sucked into just saying everything's okay, but I think it was quite a shock when we found out. You don't think of those things much, so [it's] very good just to get on top of it ... Staying healthy is the right thing."
The 52-test lock addressed the issue by taking supplements, as well as thinking about his overall diet.
"I was trying to eat well as well, to make sure I was doing things naturally. Anything I can to stay healthy," the father-of-two said, mindful that seeking medical advice was something New Zealand men are not great at.
"Getting checked, just having blood tests is a simple ... easy process. If we can do that early, find stuff, maybe then obviously we'll be around for families a lot longer."
Tuipulotu said that having a job that has a full time medical staff looking after its employees is something he's not taking for granted.
"When we come into the camp, we're pretty privileged. We're well looked after. We've got a talking nutritionist, trainer and a few other staff who stay on top of things for us. Everything's provided."
Patrick Tuipulotu. Photo: supplied
Blood biomarkers, which work in the form of regular blood tests, have emerged as accessible and cost-effective way of identifying health issues. Eight New Zealanders a day die from preventable illness, with men often delaying health checks until symptoms interfere with daily life. The blood biomarkers the All Blacks have been using are in response to the growing need for tools that encourage early intervention and proactive health management, however, they can be used as self-testing kits for the general public at home.
Biomarker testing benefits for elite level athletes like the All Blacks include early detection of potential issues, identifying nutritional deficiencies and hormone imbalances, and injury prevention - by tracking markers related to muscle damage and recovery.
Team nutritionist Kat Darry said that they'd had some "incredible results".
"They were really, promising for us to really help a player optimise their performance and their health. So that was the whole ethos behind it all was, how can we make the player be the very best in performance and recovery, but also through health?"
Patrick Tuipulotu of New Zealand, New Zealand All Blacks v France. Photo: Kerry Marshall/www.photosport.nz
Darry said that Vitamin D deficiency is caused by not enough exposure to sunlight, but it's not as simple as just going outside more.
"The darker your skin, the less Vitamin D you absorb. And so that was primarily the players that had the lower Vitamin D … a lot of it is down to the sort of sunscreen. But there's also different types of foods that we can eat to help supplement that a small amount. It was really putting them on a course of supplements, really helping them with the nutrition around how they can help with that absorption and just making some subtle changes over the course of the year."
Darry said that the lessons learned from the blood biomarkers was part of the evolving nature of sports medicine and nutrition.
"I guess one of the key things is that we're not just looking at individual blood (tests) in isolation. What we're trying to understand is, are the relationships appearing? So for example, if you're low on Vitamin D, are we seeing high cholesterol, are we seeing a higher cortisol? Are we seeing relationships of all these bloods together as opposed to in isolation? And so it really just made us consider our recovery processes."
Tuipulotu certainly wasn't deficient on Saturday night at Sky Stadium in Wellington, playing a big role in a dominant All Black forward effort that set up a 43-17 win over France. With Scott Barrett out of the series with a calf injury, it's likely he'll be returning to the field when the teams meet in the third test in Hamilton this weekend.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
