2006 All Black overload

The All Black schedule in 2006 will be one of the most crowded in New Zealand rugby history with 13 tests crammed into 10 months.

By the end of 2006, the All Blacks will have played 37 tests under current coach Graham Henry, highlighting how international fixtures dominate the professional landscape.

Even with Henry's rotation policy, it is likely that next year some players will feature more for the All Blacks than they will for their Super 14 franchise or NPC team.

Henry has already said he'd like to see All Blacks afforded a few weeks' rest during Super 14. With the Tri Nations running across much of the NPC, there will be limited opportunity for any test players to turn out in the provincial competition.

The international calendar will start in June with a two-test series against Ireland, with games in Hamilton and Auckland, and then the All Blacks will fly to Buenos Aires to play a one-off game against Argentina.

The Tri Nations will shift to an extended format that will see the All Blacks play two tests in South Africa, with one at home against the Boks in Wellington. There will be two Bledisloe Cup games in New Zealand - Christchurch and Auckland - and one in Australia.

The season will finish in the Northern Hemisphere with two tests against France, one against Wales and one at Twickenham against England.

A test against the combined Pacific Island team had been scheduled in the pre-Tri Nations window but was cancelled when Fiji, Tonga and Samoa decided they wanted to play more tests as individual nations.

But 13 tests in 10 months will still provide a stiff examination of the depth of the All Black squad.

While some traditionalists have baulked at Henry's policy of freely interchanging the side from one game to the next, analysis of the expanding fixture list provides further justification for that particular thinking.

If the All Blacks make the semifinals of the 2007 World Cup and assuming they host inbound tour games - they are scheduled to play two tests against France and one against Italy in 2007 - and then fit in a Tri Nations programme before the World Cup in early September, it will take to 53 the number of games played under Henry.

That total in a World Cup cycle - 2004 to 2007 - compares with the 45 tests that the All Blacks played between 2000 and 2003.

The total of 53 will also mean Henry will have coached the All Blacks in more tests than any other New Zealand coach.

John Hart, who had charge of the All Blacks in two separate stints - 1991 and 1996-1999 - currently tops the list. The All Blacks played 41 tests under Hart between 1996 and 1999 and 10 in 1991, a World Cup year, for a total of 51.

Laurie Mains managed 34 tests at the helm between 1992 and 1995.

The fact that Henry will surpass Hart's total with a year to spare is further evidence of how the All Black brand is used to generate revenue.

The NZRU's total income has steadily risen in recent years and is forecast to do so again next year with Eden Park likely to be sold out twice, as well as full stadiums in Wellington, Christchurch and Hamilton.

In the dim and distant past, the All Blacks would sometimes only play two tests in a year. That's why Colin Meads took 14 years to accumulate his 55 caps. Doug Howlett, on the other hand, took just five years to rack up a half century.

The NZRU is expected to confirm dates in the next week or so and also clarify venues for the away fixtures.

The test against England has come about as a result of some late negotiation. The original itinerary was to play France twice and then Wales but the English, who are always keen to host the All Blacks, made moves to squeeze a game in while New Zealand were in that neck of the woods.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY