All Blacks: Pressure on for coveted No.10

All Blacks captain Richie McCaw and Dan Carter after winning the Bledisloe Cup. Photo / Getty Images

Perhaps his place wasn't quite on the line or even remotely likely that he would not be picked, but it was intriguing to hear All Black coach Steve Hansen say the pressure was firmly on Daniel Carter to perform in that final test in Auckland.

Intriguing because it signalled two things: the intense competition for places at first-five and that even senior, world-class All Blacks were in danger of missing out if they didn't perform.

That first point is worth dwelling on for the simple reason that the 2011 campaign became all about the All Blacks' lack of depth at first-five.

They went into the last tournament with little conviction they had the ability to cover for an injury to Carter, who at that time was head and shoulders the best No10 not only in New Zealand but world rugby too.

They were right to have little conviction but somehow they got through it - scrambled a way to the finish line after they lost Carter to injury. There's no way they could get away with that again - going to a World Cup with just one valid option at No10 - but nor will they have to.

World Cups tend to be won by cool heads and good decision-makers.

Accurate goal kicking helps too, and the All Blacks have three men who can wear the No10 jersey and do so while retaining the confidence and faith of the coaches, their teammates and the rest of the nation.

They will also have a fourth back home in Lima Sopoaga who could be whistled over and no one would lose any sleep over it.

"Really close," was Hansen's assessment of how close Sopoaga came to being picked.

"He played in the South African test and he played extremely well. The good thing about that is that if we do have to call him up, we now know that - if we get past the quarter-final stage - and we need to bring him in, then he's not going to be having his first game for the All Blacks.

"He's coming in confident that he's been in an environment - Ellis Park is as good as it gets, against the Boks - and we are comfortable he can cope with it; his team are comfortable he can cope with it and he'll be comfortable he can cope with it.

"There won't be any lack of trust in the group. That was the big reason we got him to play and the fact he played so well put a lot of pressure on us to say 'wow, what do we do now?'"

What they did was sit down Daniel Carter and tell him they needed to see him deliver something special. They needed to be convinced Carter still had it and was still the right man to be the tactical general for the World Cup campaign.

"The guy that was probably under the most pressure at that point [after Ellis Park] was Daniel [Carter].

"He came out and said 'I can do the job too' and played his best test match in a number of years against Australia and was telling us he's back in form, his running of the game was great and we had established that Dan was the man we wanted to take, with the uniqueness of the rules of the tournament.

"Both Beauden Barrett and Colin Slade are specialist five-eighths but the beauty of both of them is that they can play multiple positions."