(Photo by Ross Land/Getty Images)
As Italy marches onto Christchurch, a New Zealand team that is under a surprising amount of pressure, it will look for their final hit out.
France has arrived in Australia issuing high praise in regard to the Wallaby team, with abundant headlines about how the Wallabies are either tougher or better than the All Blacks.
On the surface of this, it is a pretty obvious remark.
Of course the Wallabies are a better team than the All Blacks as it stands. While many like to croon that it is just an excuse, the actuality is that New Zealand is without key men, players who have been instrumental in establishing the All Blacks' overall—World Cup withstanding—dominance since Graham Henry’s reign.
What appears to have been proven is that the second tier of players, which Henry had painstakingly built up over 2005 and 2006, are not as good as the vital cogs of the All Blacks machine.
We might not have thought this over a year ago, but without Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, or even Rodney So’oialo, Ali Williams, and Sitiveni Sivivatu, the All Blacks are vulnerable.
And while only a small collection of players should not make a tremendous difference to a nation that prides itself on its rugby depth, and funnelling of players through its academy systems, ironically, this damage may have been caused by the landmark year of 2008.
A year where Henry was all but forced to shelve any concepts of rotation and growing depth, because an early assault by the Springboks and Wallabies forced the All Blacks to roll out, and permanently field the strongest test team available.
So while the results came, winning 13 out of 15 tests, their illustrious depth at test level caught up to the rest of the world.
And now, one could argue that they sit behind both the Springboks and Wallabies in terms of actual test player resources.
Hence the benefit of what is occurring now for All Black rugby.
The holy trinity of Henry, Wayne Smith, and Steve Hanson have no choice but to bring in the new blood.
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