On Thursday this week, it will be one year exactly until the opening game of the World Cup. Gregor Paul looks at whether the All Blacks are better prepared this time round than 12 months out from the 2007 event.
After two years of rotating and experimenting, the All Blacks reached the 2007 World Cup with an incredible talent pool, but no fixed idea as to its natural hierarchy.
To have so much choice but no clear best starting XV was the equivalent of not being able to see the
wood for the trees.
That's a mistake coach Graham Henry will not make again. Partly through design, partly through circumstance, the All Blacks of 2010 are much clearer about their best team.
If Dan Carter had been fit to play in Sydney, just about any half-interested rugby follower could have named the side.
There are established combinations in all the right places - Jerome Kaino, Richie McCaw and Kieran Read are the best loose trio. Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith have become a pairing, so too Brad Thorn and Tom Donnelly. While Sitiveni Sivivatu is injured, Joe Rokocoko, Cory Jane and Mils Muliaina fill the back three slots with little debate.
The only places of contention are at tighthead prop, where the opposition might dictate if Owen Franks or brother Ben joins Tony Woodcock and Keven Mealamu in the front row and at halfback, where the only unknown is which of Jimmy Cowan and Piri Weepu starts.
One year out and the All Blacks have a settled look they never had at the equivalent period in the last cycle.
Arguably, in September 2006, they had more genuine test-calibre players but they had a mindset that prevented them from seeing the value of intuitive partnerships; of units that knew each other and could operate more potently than the sum of their collective parts.
Henry believed if he had 30 genuine test players, it wouldn't necessarily matter who played in any given test. They'd all be good enoughand know the systems, moves and game-plans.
That's why the All Blacks had a slightly confused look for the last Tri Nations test of 2006.
Regular fullback Muliaina was at centre, Doug Howlett shifted from wing to fullback and Aaron Mauger got the nod at second five ahead of Luke McAlister, who had started the week before.
Henry explains: "When we did rotate [ between November 2005 and July 2007] we had a very successful period. We had a lot of depth.
"In 2009 we had nine test matches where we lost four games and, since this management group has been involved we hadn't gone through that experience, so that coloured our thinking about what we did.
"So we wanted to try to do re-establish a strong All Black side which I think we have done.
"But in 2006 and 2007 we had established a very strong All Black side that won virtually every game - dropped one a year - and were on a different frame of reference. The mind-set in 2006/2007 was that we had established ourselves and we could bring in players and give them opportunity.
"So if we lost players at the World Cup we could bring in others with experience of international football."
The major flaw was the failure to settle on an established midfield combination. Having spent two years saying a fullback could never again be played at centre in a major World Cup game - a fullback, Muliaina, was played at centre in a major World Cup game.
The 2007 All Blacks were also uncertain as to their best locking combination. Keith Robinson came in for the quarter-final even though Chris Jack had partnered Ali Williams for most of the cycle.
In terms of combinations - the lack of which was highlighted as a problem in the 2007 campaign review - the All Blacks are in much better shape than they were in 2006.
In terms of form and results, they are in a remarkably similar place. Leading into the last Tri Nations match of 2006, the All Blacks were on a 15-match unbeaten streak.
The All Blacks of 2010 go into their last Tri Nations match hoping to extend a 14-match unbeaten streak.
Two other key areas where the 2010 All Blacks seem just as well placed, if not better placed than they were a year out from the 2007 World Cup, are leadership and experience.
In 2006 the side had a leadership group of nine that supported the captain on the field, but primarily off it. Given the way the All Blacks capitulated in the quarter-final, it's debatable that group was effective when it mattered.
Certainly the review felt the leadership was lacking. Rarely were the All Blacks under pressure in the preceding year, so the group's frailty went undetected.
There was ample experience, as the side that played France in Paris in late November 2006 boasted more than 600 caps. The 2010 side has more than 700 test caps and there was no better evidence as to the strength of their leaders than the way they came back to win the test in Soweto.
McCaw has matured into an iconic captain and is, according to Henry, "the most influential player in world rugby right now". Carter, Muliaina, Conrad Smith, Thorn and Mealamu have contributed with on-field decision-making.
But what does Henry think? How does he assess where the team is now compared with where it was in 2006? Does he believe the current team has the same depth as the All Blacks had a year out from the 2007 World Cup?
"In the backs we have," he says. "The backs selection for the [end of year] tour is going to be exceptionally difficult and some exceptionally good players are going to miss out.
"At loose forward we probably have a half a dozen who could play test rugby and at lock, if our friend Ali [Williams] gets back on his feet and plays, that will be a real positive. But Sam Whitelock's development is a really pleasing addition to what we have been doing.
"Jason Eaton is going to come back in the latter part of the ITM Cup and that will give us some depth there.
"The props are developing. Tony Woodcock is world class and Keven Mealamu has never played better and Owen [Franks], having played 20 tests at just 22, is quite phenomenal. His brother is backing him up well and John Afoa played well. I don't think we have the same depth, but it is positive progress."
