Gregor Paul: Resilience and character give Cruden right mix

Aaron Cruden has shown great ability to handle pressure. Photo / Getty Images

The list of things that have tried to crush Aaron Cruden over the years is extensive. Plenty of oversized loose forwards and midfield backs have had a crack.

So, too, has a dodgy alarm clock, cancer, a pesky knee injury and a forgettably bad night when he earned his first test start.

The rise and rise of Beauden Barrett and the undisputed class of Daniel Carter haven't made his life any easier either and yet it is Cruden who will be wearing the All Blacks' No10 jersey at Twickenham.

His selection says everything about his resilience - his mental fortitude and capacity to absorb and deal with pressure.

Character is a big part of Cruden's make-up - it's an attractive quality in a key decision-making role.

But there's more to Cruden than resilience. His capacity to conquer adversity has been important in taking him to the front of an impressive queue of play-making talent: important in shaping who he is but not defining him.

The All Blacks are adamant Sunday's test has no longer-term connotations for the World Cup. And it probably doesn't. Yet, it's also true they will feel more confident about coming back to Twickenham next year if they win this weekend.

Beyond doubt, anyway, is that the All Blacks want to play well and they want to win. They had no shortage of choice at first-five to help them achieve those goals and with everyone - Barrett, Carter and Colin Slade - available, Cruden has been given the start.

All because he's gutsy? Partly. But mainly because he's become a world-class player and of the four No10s in the squad, he's the one with the right mix for this test.

It's not a secret that the All Blacks want to play at a frightening tempo and that suits Cruden. He's superb at skipping laterally to beat the first defender and then straightening the line to make space for others.

It was Cruden who did most of the damage to England in the second and third tests this year - popping up as a wider receiver on occasions, too, to take holes that no one else could.

There's also his combination with Sonny Bill Williams to think of. There were times in 2012 when these two were unstoppable. They read each other well, have an intuition where the other is going and Williams played his best test, against Ireland, when Cruden produced an extraordinarily good 30 minutes.

Context is important, though. Cruden's selection is not confirmation of anything other than him being the right man to start this week.

Carter was available but the selectors felt he'd be better served by not playing.

Once it came down to a straight choice between Cruden and Barrett, the former was selected to start given the proven value of the latter off the bench.

That combination has worked well for the All Blacks - why break it? And why break it for this game when tempo from the start is going to be critical.

Pass and run is definitely Cruden's strongest suit, but he's not confined to using them exclusively, a point that often gets missed.

As much as Carter's injuries have plagued his own career, they have cast an unfortunate shadow over Cruden's as well.

Take the test at Twickenham last year as a classic example. Everyone remembers it was Carter's 100th. Everyone remembers that he lasted only 23 minutes and that his big day was spoiled by a nasty Achilles injury.

Who, on the other hand, recalls how Cruden jumped off the bench and guided his team expertly for the remainder?

It was his game management that impressed that day: his ability to steer the All Blacks into the right places, to build the pressure with his boot and his poise that hurt England in the end.