Gregor Paul: We could be about to see the perfect All Blacks performance

All Blacks players at training. Photo / Photosport

There has been in every World Cup cycle since 2007, a defining game for the All Blacks that has come to carry huge significance.

For the side that won the 2011 World Cup it was the destruction of France in November 2009 that set them on their way - gave them a blueprint for how they wanted to play.

The next big mind-shift game was in October 2013 when the All Blacks produced one of the most thrilling performances of the professional age in one of the best games ever seen against South Africa at Ellis Park.

On the way to winning in both 2011 and 2015, the All Blacks would often review what they did in Marseilles and Johannesburg and have those games front of mind in regard to the desired level of physicality, intensity and skill level.

The test in Albany against South Africa tomorrow night is shaping as potentially the game that will be looked back on and seen as the point in time when this All Blacks side truly found itself.

This could be the game that sets these All Blacks on their way as a great team. There's a good chance that when the 2016-2019 cycle is reviewed, it will be the performance on Auckland's North Shore that comes to be seen as era defining.

Tomorrow's clash could be the one that gives the All Blacks the belief and confidence that they can play the all-out attack they are trying to and do so in the face of a rush defence and an ultra physical opponent.

It could be the game where this young team comes of age.

It could be it is the night they are convinced that if they trust their skills, are prepared to allow a little percentage football into their mix and maintain their intensity for the full 80 minutes, they could be a stunning rugby team.

It's never easy to see these things coming but there are a few factors that are pointing towards a classic performance.

The first and arguably most significant is the quality of the opposition. There is a simple truth here that the All Blacks are going to have to play well or they will lose.

The Boks are confident and they are in good form. They will come hard and fast at the All Blacks and the home side will have no choice but to respond.

It's also true that the All Blacks have been threatening to deliver something special in their last four tests. They played a lot of good rugby in the third test against the Lions, but didn't finish opportunities well.

Against Australia, they gave a magnificent 50 minutes in Sydney before easing off. It was looking like being a 70-point winning margin at one stage. And again in their last two tests, they have scored tries, had their moments but been let down by a lack of clarity, cohesion, and accuracy.

It's so nearly there and having not quite nailed it yet, the time is surely nigh when they will. They have analysed their recent performances to death and there is just this strong sense that their Eureka moment is coming - that they have finally worked out how to bring all the component parts together.

If Beauden Barrett sparks up and sees the space better than he has been and the pack continue with their set piece excellence and add ruthlessness at the breakdown, everything might click for the All Blacks.

And if it goes right for them, they could cause a fair bit of damage. They are armed with phenomenal pace and agility in their back three.

They have pounding ball carriers in the pack and a weapon in Sonny Bill Williams that has barely fired this year and presumably must explode soon.

If there is a final reason to be wondering whether Albany will be the shift game in this cycle, it is the fact that in the two or three games prior to the tests against France in 2009 and South Africa in 2013, the All Blacks had been patchy in the same way.

They had moments of obvious quality, but couldn't sustain them.

They had looked a mix of threatening and vulnerable in the same this team has and then suddenly delivered the near perfect performance.