The All Blacks will be given a halftime break at the Rugby World Cup with the side to take a two-day rest from rugby following their third pool match against Scotland.

Following the clash in Edinburgh on Sunday evening, the All Blacks will return immediately to their French base in Aix en Provence for a day of rest on Monday.

That will be followed by two days in which the players can get away from rugby before coming back together on the Thursday to begin preparation for their final pool match against Romania in Toulouse.

"We think that's important given that we're here for, hopefully, 59 days," Shand said.

"You just can't live 24/7 rugby. Whenever the off-field balance or on-field balance is wrong, then this group doesn't function as well.

"We've learned that over the last three or four years."

Shand said the players' partners and wives who had travelled over to France had also been a a big part of the decision making process.

"The feedback we got from the girls was that if they were going to come over, they wanted to have meaningful time (with the players) rather than trying to fit it in between training," he said.

"Obviously we have to have a pretty good idea of what everyone's doing," Shand said.

“It’s really just mental and physical downtime and we think that's critical in terms of this whole campaign, in particular so the girls get a decent amount of time with them.