KEY POINTS:
The clock will be wound back next year with the All Blacks hopeful they will secure midweek games against club sides Munster and Stade Francais on their European tour.
The Herald on Sunday understands that plans to build a Grand Slam itinerary at the end of 2008 are
unlikely to succeed as no suitable weekend can be found to fit in a test against Wales. But there is a strong possibility now that the All Blacks will play mid-week games for the first time since 2001.
Tests against Scotland (twice) and Ireland have been long confirmed and it is believed agreement has been reached to play England as well when the All Blacks head North at the end of next year.
The tour will start with a clash against the Wallabies on November 1 in Hong Kong and now hopes are high that additional midweek games against Irish giants Munster and French champions Stade Francais will be arranged.
If these club games are confirmed, creating something close to a traditional tour like those much loved in the amateur era, the All Black coaches may win permission to travel with a a vastly extended party that will include a number of untried players.
Graham Henry has long argued that without the luxury of non-test fixtures, the All Black management team has had little choice but to experiment with young players on the biggest stage.
Games against Munster and Stade Francais would allow the coaches to get a look at fringe players without having to give them test jerseys.
Cost will be the critical factor in deciding the final size of the tour party. With the New Zealand dollar trading so strongly against the greenback, the NZRU is again looking at a significant loss this year.
But the decision to not run the Junior All Blacks in 2008 will be a significant saving and give Henry a strong argument about the need to expose a wider group of players to a higher level of football.
There will also be some concern within the All Black management team of having to play five tests in consecutive weeks. When the All Blacks played the Lions in 2005 only eight players managed to start all three tests such was the level of attrition.
A total of 14 tests have been confirmed for next year and a 15th might yet be arranged if Argentina's players can be released to play in a Tri Nations bye-weekend in late August.
Making life even tougher next year is the disappearance of a rest week between the Super 14 final and first All Black test of the year. "If two New Zealand teams are in the final then that will present us with significant challenges when we have to select an All Black team to play a test against Ireland seven days later," said Henry last week.
The games against Scotland and Ireland which fall into the IRB test window between November 15 and November 29, will see the hosts keep the gate revenue. The test in Hong Kong, however, will net the NZRU an undisclosed fee as will the game in Twickenham which is believed to have been arranged for November 8.
England played the All Blacks outside the official test window last year and paid the NZRU £1 million ($2.6m).
Talks have taken place with the Welsh about fitting them into the tour so as a Grand Slam itinerary can be fixed.
But the problem is player release, as the proposed date in the first weekend of December is traditionally assigned to Heineken Cup games. With nearly all of Wales's best players likely to be involved in Heineken Cup action, scheduling a test against the All Blacks on the same day would create conflict with the clubs.
