All Blacks: Four years on and still first-five is an issue

Jonathan Sexton of Ireland. Photo / Getty Images

At this stage in the last World Cup cycle, the All Blacks didn't have a clue who their back up first-five was.

They played Wales in this equivalent weekend in 2010 and left Cardiff knowing they had Daniel Carter and then a giant gap to somebody else - who could have been Aaron Cruden, Colin Slade or Stephen Donald but was in no way obvious.

Here they are again in Cardiff four years on and now they don't even know who their first-choice first-five is and yet they could hardly be happier about that.

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The All Blacks have done what many other sides would consider impossible and ended up with four test quality No 10s. That's selling them a bit short - they have got the best one the world has known, another who is definitely world class, a third who is on the cusp of being there and a fourth who would walk into pretty much any other test side.

The Irish would disagree - convinced as they are despite his flaky temperament that Johnny Sexton is in the mix - but the All Blacks may have the three best first-fives in world rugby. They might have four of the top five as Slade wouldn't be that far behind Sexton and it's a scarcely believable position to be in just 10 months before the World Cup.

The All Blacks have, probably, insured themselves against even the most outrageous misfortune at next year's tournament.

Every other serious nation would be in a fluster if they lost just one first-five. The All Blacks could lose two and shrug it off. They could probably just about avoid going into a panic if a third fell over and while such depth in one position won't win them a World Cup on its own, it does give them a level of confidence about their ability to play the type of game they want through the tournament.

"It's comforting. Very comforting," said All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster.

"Even today we were rotating all four of them through [at training] and that is our goal - to be able to have a seamless transition from one to the other. Yep it's great. It puts us in a good position. But that is the position we are in now."

There isn't a coach in world rugby who wouldn't love to have such abundance of choice, but the All Blacks selectors can put only one man in the No 10 jersey on Saturday and there will be more intrigue than usual this week about who that is.

All four can make a case to start: Barrett was confirmed as being in front in Brisbane and he could say nothing has happened to change that. Cruden can say, based on what he delivered in Chicago and London, that it has; Carter needs the game time and Slade is in form.

Whichever way they go, it wouldn't be wise to read too much into it. Foster says the plan on this tour was to give all three - Slade only joined the squad in London due to injury - a reasonable chance to play.

"Traditionally with 10s you stick with one and the other guys don't get a lot of opportunity," says Foster. "That's probably been the case with us in the past whereas now we are probably able to take the philosophy that we do want to give opportunity.

"As a consequence, we have got four in a pretty good position and you would have to say, Sladey in particular, isn't it great that we are talking about him being one of the four because of the way he has played."

4 cases to play first-five

Beauden Barrett
Confirmed as being in front in Brisbane and he could say nothing has happened to change that.

Aaron Cruden
Based on what he delivered in Chicago and London can say it has.

Daniel Carter
Needs the game time.

Colin Slade
Can say that he is in form.