IT was one of the primary school pupils from Darlington’s Rydal Academy who put it best as he walked away from the ground.

Having watched the All Blacks’ open coaching session at The Northern Echo Arena along with his class-mates, he turned towards his teacher and said, ‘Are you sure they’re really the best rugby team in the world? They seem too normal’. He might not have known it, but he had hit one of the reigning world champions’ most appealing attributes on the head.

Normality might seem like a strange thing to aspire to when you’re striving for sporting excellence, but having a spent a week or so in and around the All Blacks camp as they prepared for this evening’s final World Cup group game against Tonga, I’m convinced it’s a big part of the reason why the New Zealanders are so respected and successful.

The likes of Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and Sonny Bill Williams might be some of the most famous sportsmen in the world, but rather than shutting themselves away over the course of the last five days, they have embraced their time in the North-East and pretty much thrown open the doors to all who have wanted to see them.

They have wandered down Darlington’s High Row in their tracksuits, happily signing autographs. They have visited Durham and Newcastle, taking in the sights and merrily snapping away with their IPhones, and popped across to Middlesbrough’s Rockliffe Park training ground to see how a Championship football club operates.

Their Rockliffe Hall base has remained open to the public, and while certain areas have been out of bounds, plenty of young North-East rugby fans have left delighted after posing for a photo with some of their heroes.

Yesterday, the majority of the All Blacks’ players were at the Arena, coaching youngsters, taking part in a question-and-answer session with some of Mowden Park’s sponsors and happily leading a chanting competition that saw hundreds of children attempting to out-sing each other. And all of this, don’t forget, on the eve of their final World Cup group game.

From a press perspective, their accessibility has been remarkable. On Sunday, just hours after the All Blacks had touched down in the North-East, six of their players were made available for interview. The following day, three more were put in front of the world’s media.

On Wednesday, as Steve Hansen announced his team to face Tonga, the head coach was part of an interview session that featured six more players. Nothing out of bounds, no one off limits. As well as trying to retain their World Cup crown, the All Blacks accept that part of their role here in England is to act as ambassadors for their sport.

Now, I’m not a massive fan of comparisons between rugby and football. It’s all too easy to become embroiled in an unfair attempt to pin the failings of one sport on a refusal to adopt the policies of the other. Would football be a better game if the players were penalised for even the slightest display of dissent, and were unable to speak to the referee? What about if footballers started running around, lamping each other instead?

In so many ways, it’s a flawed debate, but if football, and I’m thinking of the England national team specifically here, could learn one thing from the way the All Blacks have conducted themselves this week, it is surely an acknowledgment that a degree of normality is to be welcomed rather than feared.

All too often when England’s footballers crash out of a major tournament, we are told that the players could not cope with being confined for weeks on end. Yet time and time again, the FA opt to closet their star names away.

Think back to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and England’s rural retreat in Rustenburg that was likened to a five-star prison. Why weren’t the public allowed to rub shoulders with Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and the rest? Why weren’t the players allowed to experience some of the authentic South Africa?

The last Rugby World Cup in New Zealand proved that English sportsmen cannot always be trusted to act responsibility when the shackles are off, but perhaps if more were treated like responsible adults, more would also behave in that manner.

The problem is especially acute within football, and not just at international level. Premier League clubs, including the two in our region, treat their players like demi-Gods. Everything is done for them, and heaven forbid if they actually have to rub shoulders with the general population on anything like an equal footing.

As members of the press, we see this up close. I’ve lost count of the amount of hours I’ve spent waiting at football club training grounds for players or managers who are either late or who do not turn up for a scheduled interview. Similarly, I’ve long stopped being offended by players who rudely refuse to speak after a game. A personal lowlight was when former Newcastle midfielder Jamie McClen blanked me as I tried to get a quote or two after a Magpies reserves match. Clearly, his time was far more important than mine.

Compare that to everything that has happened this week. Carter, McCaw and Ma’a Nonu, who will win his 100th All Black cap this evening, are at a level of sporting achievement and profile that makes them comparable to a Lionel Messi, Roger Federer or Tiger Woods. Yet sit down and speak to them, or pass them in a hotel corridor, and you certainly wouldn’t know it.

As a result, they will leave the North-East tomorrow with a legion of new fans, and with rugby’s profile having soared in a region that is renowned as a footballing heartland.

It might only have been a couple of hours yesterday morning, but the 4,000 or so children who shouted themselves hoarse in the home of Darlington Mowden Park will not forget it in a hurry. It would be nice to think that others have taken note.