By JOHN DRAKE
The world champion Wallabies look like a team who may struggle to reach full motivation for the Tri-Series.
The All Blacks must go in as strong favourites to retain the title, even though there are dangers in reading too much into their big wins over Scotland and Tonga.
Australia are still celebrating winning the World Cup and some of their players appear to be on their last legs in test terms.
They have already lost tighthead prop Patricio Noriega to French rugby and he was the cornerstone of an average test front row.
He is a major loss.
Others such as David Wilson and John Eales are nearing the end of their test careers.
Wilson and Tim Horan have already signed for English clubs and others seem set to follow.
You would have to question whether the Wallabies' heads will be in the right place to take on an enthusiastic and fairly young All Blacks, who under Wayne Smith's squad system are having to fight for their positions.
Openside flanker Wilson looked too slow last year, although he fronted up well at the World Cup.
A good few of the Australian players are probably past it and thinking more about what lies ahead for them with careers in Britain.
The South Africans have some major problems, especially in the halves.
With Joost van der Westhuizen struggling for form, they are left with a problem at halfback. And they just seem to be trying anyone at first five-eighths - they don't have any standout player for that key position.
But one major factor the All Blacks will be up against is that Australia and South Africa know they can beat the All Blacks.
That was certainly not the case with the Scots, who have never beaten the All Blacks and look to be getting further and further away from that prospect.
Judging by articles on the internet before the tests, their players were accepting they were beaten before they took the field. They were hardly tests against Scotland, and you still have to question how this All Blacks side will react when it is put under any real pressure.
I have just returned from England where there is an incredible amount of squabbling going on in rugby.
There is no central body that really seems in control.
The clubs go their own way and a separate body even runs schools rugby.
But as they showed against South Africa, the English are a force in test rugby.
Ian Jones, who is playing for Gloucester, told me he rated the English forwards very highly. He was surprised at how good they were.
While they were not as instinctive as the New Zealand players, he said they were very strong, with excellent techniques. And he believed there were some very good backs coming through.
Yet Jones' own club, backed by Arrows racing team owner Tom Walkinshaw, epitomises some of the strange goings-on in the English game. They lost around $9 million last year.
Jones says there are rich characters willing to keep putting money into the clubs, but from the outside it is hard to envisage anyone tolerating those sorts of losses year after year.
A disappointment for me was the appointment of Graham Henry as coach of the British Lions to tour Australia.
He seemed to get the job by default. Ian McGeechan would have been the No 1 choice but wasn't available.
English coach Clive Woodward should have been in the hunt but he heard he wasn't the No 1 choice, so made himself unavailable.
Henry's appointment is a symptom of the sort of squabbling that goes on in the game there. He will do a good job, but it isn't a good trend.
It takes some of the mystique away from the Lions, who represent the last great tour in world rugby.
The appointment of Henry robs the team of some tradition and that is a shame.
The Lions could well have promoted a good young coach from one of their own countries into the job.
They did it in 1971 with Carwyn James, who was coaching Llanelli, - and he moulded them into one of the greatest sides in rugby history.
They were the first - and only - Lions side to win a series in New Zealand.
Rugby: Serious questions over Wallabies' motivation
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