New Zealand hardly seem to be taking the World Cup seriously, even if they do meet Slovakia tomorrow in their opening match. The tone of the manager, Ricki Herbert, and his captain, Ryan Nelsen, who also wears the armband for Blackburn Rovers, was today one of almost unflagging jocularity. There may have been just one breach in the bonhomie when the calibre of the squad was discussed.

Herbert was moved to point out that his team had beaten Serbia 1-0 a couple of weeks ago in a friendly played in Austria. It was not the losers' best line-up but 10,000 supporters in Klagenfurt declined to take that into account. Fireworks were thrown and spectators were fighting with the stewards until the centre-half Nemanja Vidic took a microphone and pleaded for order. "We have been competitive right across the board," said the manager.

At all other times yesterday, Herbert stuck to being light-hearted. No one assumes that New Zealand will have an impact in South Africa, yet insouciance is an asset when other sides are so overwrought. While this is a nation whose sole appearance at the World Cup until now came in 1982, Nelsen, who was four years old at the time, has been doing his research and was well-informed on the subject of Herbert, who was in that line-up.

The tournament cannot have been a complete disaster, even if all three games were lost, because Herbert, a defender, signed for Wolverhampton Wanderers a couple of years later. Nelsen's delving into his boss's presence in Spain 28 years ago is not a model of conventional sports scholarship. "Ridiculous haircuts," he declared. "Herbert was No1. He had a horrible perm."

Any thought that a transformation has occurred is abandoned after a glance at Fifa rankings that shows them to be 78th in the world, just below Wales. The manager still works hard to insist that his country has status and that national pride was accompanied by some light comedy. Brazil beat the Kiwis 4-0 in 1982 and afterwards Herbert exchanged shirts with the great midfielder Sócrates. Herbert confirmed the top hangs on the wall in his house, but swiftly added, "Hopefully Sócrates has still got mine." Nothing interrupted the fun for too long. Nelsen scoffed at a proposal that his team should adopt an All Blacks ritual. "Skinny white guys doing the haka," he mused. "Very intimidating."

Persistence is as much as he and his team-mates would claim for themselves. With Australia taking part in the Asia qualifiers, New Zealand busied themselves in the Oceania section and despite a loss to Fiji, they advanced to a two-legged play-off with Bahrain that was settled by a single goal, from Rory Fallon.

The Plymouth Argyle attacker joins Chris Killen, of Middlesbrough, Ipswich's Tommy Smith and Nelsen as squad members from the English scene. It does not look as if New Zealand have the means to unsettle Italy, Paraguay or, possibly, Slovakia. Their advantage lies in putting themselves at ease. Take Nelsen on the vuvuzela issue: "If we can't hear [Herbert] it's a blessing."