All Blacks show support

West Ham United welcomed four sporting superstars to their Open Training session at Wellington's Westpac Stadium on Friday.

The Hammers were honoured to welcome New Zealand All Blacks Conrad Smith, Ma'a Nonu, Julian Savea and Victor Vito along ahead of Saturday's Football United Tour fixture with Sydney FC.

The quartet, who have 214 international caps between them and are expected to feature at the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England, are all members of what is commonly considered to currently be the world's best sports team.

The All Blacks have not lost any of their last 17 fixtures dating back to December 2012 and recently won a 3-0 Test series victory over England on home soil.

After watching training, the four illustrious visitors met manager Sam Allardyce and fellow countryman Winston Reid and also got their hands on West Ham's famous Claret and Blue shirt.

Smith, who also captains the Wellington Hurricanes Super Rugby side, said he had been a football supporter since childhood and kept a close eye on the Barclays Premier League.

"We knew the team was in town and a few of the boys know the Wellington Phoenix pretty well and they told us West Ham were training down here so the ones who know something about soccer came down to have a look," said the 32-year-old Liverpool fan. "I have tickets for the game on Saturday and I'm sure it will be good with a good crowd.

"This is great for Wellington and sport in New Zealand. I know I play a different sport, but I think it's great that a high-profile team has come down to play in Wellington in our stadium.

"It's good for people to be supporting any sport and I'm looking forward to sitting down and watching a game, relaxing and enjoying a hot dog!

"I have two older brothers and we picked teams when we were young and I liked the red shirts, so Liverpool was my team. My middle name is also Gerard so with Steven Gerrard it grew from there!

"I played football and rugby as a youngster, but I turned out to be better at rugby so I went with that. A lot of the All Blacks and Wellington boys love football and we all have English Premier League teams, and all sportsmen enjoy other sports."

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Victor Vito, Julian Savea and Conrad Smith dropped by

Savea and Vito are two young stars of the All Blacks squad which hopes to win the Rugby World Cup for a second time in 2015.

"We got the invite, so we thought we would come down and watch training and see what it was like and it's pretty impressive," said Savea.

"It's huge for you guys to come here and just to see you training and all the flags shows how awesome the support is that you guys get. It's unreal, just seeing this is breathtaking."

"I love my soccer and that's where I started my sports career. With the World Cup just finishing, I got into it a little bit more and the last time we were over in London in 2012 we went to watch a Premier League game, which was great as well," added Vito.

Savea bagged a hat-trick of tries for the All Blacks in their recent Third Test win over England in Hamilton, but has the winger ever considered seeing if his pace and power could translate into football?

"We were talking about it before and wondering how fast the soccer guys are. It's interesting and I wouldn't mind giving it a go!" said the 23-year-old.

While every West Ham player loves pulling on the Claret and Blue shirt, there is no higher honour in New Zealand sport than representing the All Blacks.

So, just how does Vito feel when he pulls on the legendary shirt?

"There is no higher honour than playing for the All Blacks, and it's also a big honour for us to play for Wellington Hurricanes, too," he explained.

"Like Julian was saying, it's amazing to see so many fans bringing flags to training on the day before a game. They are fanatical and it's great to see football clubs coming to New Zealand."

Next year, New Zealand will grace London's Olympic Stadium during the 2015 Rugby World Cup, when they take on Namibia in a Pool C fixture on 24 September.

So, are the All Blacks looking forward to playing at West Ham's future home and playing for a possible second world title?

"I think all the guys are looking forward to getting over there," said Vito. "The Olympic Stadium that you're moving to is going to be great and we're looking forward to playing there."

"If I get the opportunity to play there that would be awesome," added Savea. "The thought of winning the World Cup is amazing and I'm really excited by it."