Rugby: First priority is to overcome the French blues

Forget all about the rebuilding for the 2003 rugby World Cup.

This All Black team has been fashioned exclusively to restore New Zealand's badly dented honour against France.

And so it should be. There is time enough to prepare for the big one. The first priority is to re-establish the culture of winning, and the French are a primary target here.

The humiliation of last year still rankles, and the All Black team go to Paris with unfinished business on their minds.

If ever a team has been provided with incentive to win, these All Blacks have.

And they are going to need every ounce of it, because the task of focusing yet again, for the final fling of the season, is a mighty big one.

Many of those who contested the business end of the NPC have played themselves to a standstill.

Todd Blackadder, Andrew Mehrtens, Anton Oliver, Norm Maxwell, Taine Randell, Scott Robertson, Reuben Thorne and Pita Alatini are all showing signs of battle fatigue that will take a near-superhuman effort to overcome.

Several others are carrying the kind of injuries that will not be thrown off until they can lie on the beach for a month.

Most are longing for that summer break, but they know that if they fail on this expedition, life will be no beach next year.

For a variety of reasons, this is a shrewdly selected team. There is only one concession to experimentation and that is the prospect that Tana Umaga may finally get his wish and play at centre in a test match.

And if that doesn't work, there is the ever-dependable Jason O'Halloran standing in his shadow.

But there are other features that accentuate that shrewdness.

The first is the selection of Filo Tiatia, who is coming off a long layoff and fairly raring to finally prove that he is the best No 8 in the land.

The other relatively underdone forward is Greg Feek and he, too, will bring new energy to the squad just when it is needed.

It is just a pity we don't have another openside flanker similarly qualified and similarly fresh to take the place of Josh Kronfeld.

Kupu Vanisi would have been a good gamble in the circumstances and this is the one area where the selectors have not been quite so shrewd.

Gordon Slater, a venerable prop whose test days looked over, has been recalled to add grit to a front row which will be under the severest challenge from the French.

In terms of all-round playing ability, Slater would not normally have made it, but he will be invaluable in France.

In the recent past, the French have never been able to understand New Zealand selection policy when it comes to props. There will be no scratching of heads this time.

The addition of Carlos Spencer, if he can contain his rather peculiar onfield antics, may also turn out to be a master-stroke.

There is every chance that Mehrtens will run out of gas on this tour, and with Brown languishing at the next level down all year, Spencer is being given an opportunity - hopefully not his last - to show that he can ignite an All Black backline who will take the French apart if they can get the right kind of ball in the right kind of space.

Having had moments of greatness as well as mediocrity, the back three from Wellington are firing again and look remarkably fresh.

They have performed wonders for Wellington over recent weeks, and are poised to do the same to the French.

Let's hope their less-heralded colleagues have enough left in the 2000 tank to provide them with the right kind of platform.