Gregor Paul: All-consuming contract negotiations a distraction the All Blacks don't need

Beauden Barrett addressed rumours about his future. Photo / Getty

By Gregor Paul in Tokyo

Player movement has the potential to be the proverbial iceberg in World Cup year.

In 2007 a whole campaign was partly sunk because leading All Blacks were in France, dealing with the logistics of their impending European ventures instead of focusing on what would they would do if they found themselves two points down in a quarter-final with 12 minutes to go.

There was also the almost unbelievable scenario of captain Richie McCaw extending his contract – by one year – the day before the quarter-final.

In 2011, Cory Jane nearly played his way out of the World Cup squad twisting himself into knots as to whether he would take an offer to play in Ireland after he walked away from a deal to play in Japan.

And in 2015 Charles Piutau cooked his goose when he unexpectedly signed with Ulster ahead of the tournament and saw the All Blacks turn rather cold on him as a result.

What's been proven many times in the last 12 years is that career-planning takes a toll on almost every player.

It becomes all-consuming, distracting and debilitating and the longer a player takes to make his mind up about what he'll be doing after the World Cup, the higher the chance his form and confidence will drop.

This is why the All Blacks coaches are encouraging those senior players in the current squad who are not yet contractually committed beyond 2019 to not take an age to make up their minds about their respective futures.

The ideal scenario would be for Sam Whitelock, Beauden Barrett and Brodie Retallick to tidy up their business either by the end of this year or early next.

They would ideally like all three to make long-term commitments to stay in New Zealand but even if they don't and choose to head offshore, an unlikeable early outcome is better than uncertainty.

The danger of letting things drag is that it invites speculation and in this social media age, it doesn't take long for misinformation to infiltrate and for players to be denying rumours without being able to confirm the truth.

It becomes a mental burden for the players and certainly in the past, those individuals who have agonised about whether to stay or go, have played as if they have had that question way too prominent in their own minds.

It is no coincidence that two of the greatest All Blacks of all time – Richie McCaw and Daniel Carter – were early career decision-makers, the latter of course having learned the hard way of how distracting negotiations can become if they are not settled before a World Cup.

McCaw and Carter both announced in early 2011 that they had committed to four-year deals through to 2015. And Carter actually revealed in December 2014 that he would be joining Racing Metro after the 2015 World Cup. McCaw always knew he was going to retire even though he didn't announce it until after the World Cup.

Those two were able to get their contract affairs out of the way so they had clear minds and unobstructed focus to take into both 2011 and 2015.

Look how they both played in those tournaments and the benefit of signing something earlier rather than later is apparent.

Whitelock said at the start of this week that he knows he has to make his decision sooner rather than later, and in a more vague way, Barrett said as much the following day.

Asked whether coming to Japan as a sabbatical option was a realistic option, he said: "There is a lot to like about Japan. What I can say is there is good open communication with the coaches, my management and NZR and I am happy that at the right time I will make the right decision.

"I'll leave it at that for now. When the time is right it will be obvious and I'll make a decision."