As much as the Springboks have telegraphed their intentions about how they will play in their Rugby World Cup opener, so too have the All Blacks.
Picking Sevu Reece is essentially what gives the game away: it's that decision alone which confirms the commitment the All Blacks are making toan all-out attack game at this World Cup.
Reece is unorthodox, he's unpredictable and he's unbelievably good at conjuring something from nothing. He's the man everyone has come to love watching play as no one ever knows what he'll deliver.
Nothing is impossible with him and not one defence this year has been able to contain him or accurately sense what he's all about.
But he's played only three tests and no one can be certain, not even All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, that Reece can deal with what the Boks are almost certainly going to bring.
He's been a terror with the ball in hand all year. A freak almost in the way he can make something happen and such a revelation in the way he doesn't conform to any expectation.
Defences can't read him yet. They don't have a feel for where he's going to appear or what angle he's going to be running. And even when they do, he's seemingly only muscle and can bounce or accelerate out of trouble.
He sees, he does and it all works. It's instinctive and while it may not last forever, it's running hot for now and obviously the All Blacks have picked him to make use of all the attacking thrust he brings.
He's in the team to bring something different: something unplanned and magical that the Boks can neither predict nor prepare for.
To pick him ahead of Smith says the All Blacks have little interest in making safe choices. They are ready to gamble that the exuberance and brilliance of Reece outweighs any perceived or real weaknesses he may have defensively.
He might be able to catch a high ball, but we don't know if he can do it in a big test.
So it's a bold, bold move by All Blacks coach Steve Hansen to throw Reece into the back three when there is certainty that so much of the game will hinge on the individual and collective ability to deal with the aerial threat.
The All Blacks know what is going to be coming at them in Yokohama – a green wall looking to knock them over and the deadly accurate kicking of Faf de Klerk and Handre Pollard.
Diffuse that and turn it into counter-attacking opportunities and the game will swing in favour of the All Blacks.
That's the best trick the Boks have and if the All Blacks can nullify it, expose it as limited, then they can shatter the confidence of a side that is being talked up around the world at the moment as the team to beat.
As opening gambits go, this is a huge play by Hansen and a stunning endorsement of the confidence he has in Reece who this time last year was hammering away in the Mitre 10 Cup.
That risk, to some degree, is compounded by the selection of Bridge. His skillset looks perfectly suited to test rugby and in particular to the likely threat posed by the Boks, but the issue with him is inexperience.
Ryan Crotty, George Bridge and Riche Mo'unga at the team's hotel in Tokyo, Japan. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He and Reece are indeed the wings in form: the two men who have demanded to be taken seriously. Yet they are so raw and unproven.
Their experience in genuine, high-stakes pressure games extends to one test.
That was against the Wallabies at Eden Park last month and while the All Blacks were quite definitely playing for more than the Bledisloe Cup that night, the Wallabies never really fired.
They didn't manage to ask many, if any questions, of the defensive ability of either Bridge or Reece and they didn't stick the ball in the air relentlessly, to see how they coped.
The Boks won't delay in finding out the answer to that question. When they played the All Blacks at the last World Cup, they sought out Nehe Milner-Skudder early in the game, stuck a few high kicks on him and when they had early success at climbing over the top of him, it became their go-to tactic.
The same fate awaits Reece and it can be a lonely and exposed place to be when a team singles out a player – tries to isolate him and fill him with doubt.
If he copes the All Blacks' gamble could pay off spectacularly. If he doesn't the risk the All Blacks have taken may deliver no reward.
Love your rugby? Click here to subscribe to our new Premium newsletter for extensive Rugby World Cup coverage.
