KEY POINTS:
Every now and then, a sports team or person pulls off a performance of such unmistakable quality there is little left to do but applaud and admire.
What is remarkable about Graham Henry's All Blacks is that they have done so in the face of considerable public pressure,
including from the likes of this writer, over the unpopular rotation system. Their answer has been to remain on the same, unswerving course and to let the results speak for themselves.
Which they have - and in a tone which brooks no dissent. That demolition of France by 47-3 last week was as clear a vindication of the rotation policy as it was possible to get. After a series of occasionally halting performances and some rusty-looking combinations, the All Blacks have rolled on superbly with their rotational efforts.
What happened against England, and more particularly against France, was an emphatic underlining of what the All Blacks began to achieve last year when Henry's men played and beat Wales.
He then completely changed his side to play Ireland, winning both tests. This year, they did over the reigning world champions and the acknowledged No 2 team in the world.
In both cases, the quality gap wasn't a gap; it was a galaxy. Hand on heart, I can say I have never seen an All Black side so dominant since the days of 1987-89; Wayne Shelford's All Blacks were perhaps the last to come so close to the rugby Holy Grail of "perfection".
Henry's team might not be near that yet - this side have not yet produced a quality attacking performance for 80 minutes (and they will be amazing to watch when they do). But they have, as those previous All Blacks did, changed the game.
Henry's accent on depth, on rotation and on ensuring New Zealand has at least two in each position capable of playing in a World Cup final has worked spectacularly well. Some coaches are already - and more will follow - aping this approach.
Therein lies an issue. Between World Cups, I fear for the quality of international rugby. If everyone is rotating and rehabilitating, the chances are world rugby will get tedious indeed - in fact, it was often an issue this year.
At least it was, until France. We all reserved judgement the previous week as England rugby is not in a happy place right now. Parts of that match felt a bit more like a Barbarians game. But the French and the intensity? Whew.
Henry and his troops can take no responsibility for any hiatus in the quality of world rugby. The French test made that clear.
The All Blacks have moved the game on and it is up to the game and those who administer it to adjust to this new territory.
The game of rugby is in need of an overhaul anyway.
The ludicrous tackled ball rule; political correctness; too many rules and too many penalties; referees who have to shout at the players to keep them within the laws of the game - these are all negatives.
Then there are tired competitions like the Tri Nations and the ever more insistent demands for emerging powers like Argentina and the Pacific Island nations to be dealt a better hand so they can indeed emerge and grow the game globally. It's a big agenda and a big task.
Henry and co have taken a misfiring All Black machine and developed it to a position where it is changing the fabric of the game on the way to winning the World Cup.
For nations like England, there is the enormous challenge of taking the largest supply of players in the world and equipping them with the skill base that many All Blacks have naturally, courtesy of kicking about with a ball on the beach, at school, on the back lawn, as kids. For the French, after the Laporte era, is the task of maintaining their forward power but re-discovering their flair and the ability of the French backs to bewilder any opposition.
The Australians have to somehow grow scrummagers from a school and club base which de-powers the scrum.
The Springboks have to somehow work their way through transformation; the integration of black players and appeasing political masters as well as rugby fans.
The game's global administrators have the biggest challenge of all - competitions and outlets which provide entertainment and expression, even if the whole rugby world is following the Henry lead and rotating and rehabbing.
Henry is not going to mind too much what happens - he has made clear his goal.
Win or lose the World Cup, he and the All Blacks have already changed the game of rugby.
In the past, the response to such advances has been to wait until the team of the moment disintegrates or slips back towards the pack.
To do so this time would do rugby a disservice. It needs some new dimensions - a global season, new competitions, some lateral thinking to take the game to its next level.
As Henry and the All Blacks have done.
