KEY POINTS:
How things change.
All the players knew the score well before yesterday's All Black World Cup announcement.
The live TV production is slick. Seconds matter. The names are handed out a minute before New Zealand Rugby Union chairman Jock Hobbs gets the finger - as in "you're up
pal" from the producer.
Hobbs begins with "Daniel Carter, Canterbury", just as all his predecessors did on other big rugby occasions down the years. It used to be "C. E. Meads, King Country". Things are less formal these days.
Take 1987 and the naming of the first All Black World Cup squad. It was Whangarei, hours after the final Probables-Possibles trial.
The live TV announcement - a first - was preceded by a dinner, which doubtless did little to settle players' stomachs. There they were, grouped in fours at tables, expected to enjoy the occasion. Yeah right.
The NZRU chairman, Russ Thomas, did the honours that night.
At one table of four, three heard their names read out. The fourth, Brent Anderson, did not. The three did what you'd expect, grins and little punches of air. Then they realised one of them had missed the cut.
After the 26th and final name was read out, they commiserated with Anderson and headed off to celebrate with the others who'd made it.
Anderson sat with his head in his hands several minutes. Alex Wyllie, one of Sir Brian Lochore's coaching assistants that year, saw this. After a time he went over and in best Grizz fashion gave Anderson a gentle bang on the arm and a "chin up Buck" word of consolation.
Later there were interviews with some of the new faces in the squad. Michael Jones, uncapped but with talent all too apparent, was in. Shy, he barely uttered a word, but you knew he was thrilled and just a bit awestruck.
Zinzan Brooke, another of the young brigade, reckoned it was "grouse". Then it was off into the Whangarei night for a few lime and lemonades.
In a link with 20 years ago, Lochore was parked up at the top table yesterday with his fellow selectors. They had no formal setup like that in 1987.
Back then, there were surprises and players didn't know in advance if they were in. The B word was often used, and if Andrew Ellis was no bolter - after all, he was in the squad a year ago - he was a major surprise yesterday. And he was clearly dead chuffed, just as Jones and Brooke were back then.
So as they head for France and aim for glory, just like 1987, perhaps it's a case of plus ca change - the production may be orchestrated to the nth degree, but in terms of what really matters, the more things change the more they stay the same.
