KEY POINTS:
There are certain incidents that can be so memorable they define a player's career. Like the time in 2003 when England No 8 Lawrence Dallaglio picked up Rodney So'oialo like a dog who needed disciplining and tossed him into touch.
In that instant it felt like So'oialo would
never recover. He was damaged goods, a player with little hope of surviving in the no-frills world of test football.
But four years on it is almost impossible to equate the images of So'oialo the rag doll with the man now barely squeezing into the All Black No 8 shirt.
No one, not Dallaglio, not Julien Bonnaire, not Wycliff Palu, has the faintest hope of becoming So'oialo's bete noir.
It's only when you get up close to So'oialo that his full dimensions become apparent. The 28-year-old is a seriously big unit these days and without question he'd be one of the fittest loose forwards in world rugby.
He'd be covering close to 10km most tests and that's not at chug-along pace, that's flat out. In those final lung-sapping minutes, So'oialo is still going, still beating opponents to the breakdown, still making his presence felt.
In those dark exchanges, where he was at one time not so comfortable, he more than holds his own and he holds it because he's buff to his eyeballs, an explosive beast who puts men on the carpet none too gently.
He's not the only one. His backrow chums Jerry Collins and Richie McCaw are in the best shape of their careers, the skipper looking like an Olympic quarter-miler in his cameo appearance against Romania.
Ali Williams, Carl Hayman, Bryon Kelleher, Mils Muliaina - they all say the same thing, they are the fittest they have ever been.
And that is a relief for the All Black coaching team, because that is precisely the result they were hoping for by taking 22 players out of the early rounds of this year's Super 14.
In a move that had deep-seated commercial ramifications, the New Zealand Rugby Union sanctioned a three-month conditioning programme for the bulk of the All Black squad.
The bloated rugby calendar had left too many key players barely hanging on to their conditioning, said the All Black coaches. Without a decent break to rehabilitate and rebuild bodies, too many players would have reached September on their knees.
So out they came to embark on training programmes that were designed to see the players reach precisely this point in the best physical shape of their lives.
Ask All Black strength and conditioning coach Graham Lowe whether he's confident the goals of the programme have been achieved and he's certain they have.
"The players have presented themselves in great shape. We have done fitness testing, body composition stuff, GPS stuff and feedback from their trainings to get indications from all that.
"There are a lot of guys presenting in one facet, or in a number of facets, as good as I have seen them.
"When I look at the GPS data we have from training there is no doubt there has been a ramping in that context. What we are all interested in is how they front on the field."
More than a little interested, as it happens, because the next two weeks will define Graham Henry's tenure, if indeed after this morning there is still two weeks left of his tenure. The risks Henry has taken have been significant, none more so than the reconditioning window.
On a purely athletic level, the window made sense. No other high-impact aerobic sport has such a long season. No other sport denies its stars an opportunity to prepare adequately for what lies ahead.
But the whole programme can't be evaluated on athletic terms only. While common sense and gut feeling alludes towards a conclusion that bigger, faster, stronger individuals will make better rugby players, that is not necessarily the case.
What needs to be seen in the next two weeks is tangible evidence that these seriously fit men have used their conditioning base to become better rugby players.
The power of So'oialo has to be linked into the gameplan. Kelleher has to make his upper body strength count by breaking past defenders from the base. Muliaina, having for the first time in his professional career kept his weight above 90kg, has to throw his extra 4kg about.
The list could go on - McCaw's speed endurance has to be used to snaffle turnover ball, Williams' ability to shift big leg weights has to be translated into aerial supremacy and Joe Rokocoko and Sitiveni Sivivatu can record times over 40m as often as they like, but it will count for nothing if they can't get outside their man and score tries.
"What we have tried to generate is the real sharpness of each player so that when the holes are there they can take them," says Lowe. "But in the end the fundamental thing that will take them into a gap is their rugby talent."
Lowe and his team did their bit in the first three months of the year. They helped the players lay their foundation stone and as they promised, have got the squad to France in the best physical condition of their careers. It might even be hard to refute the claim that this All Black side is the fittest to ever play the game.
In terms of the preparation up to this point in time, Lowe says nothing has happened for him to change his mind about the importance and value of an extended pre-season.
"In hindsight we would have subtle changes but the guts of where it came from and the planning that went into it, we believe is correct," he says of the reconditioning window. "France had a significant programme and you could argue South Africa looked at creating an opportunity by withdrawing some of their players, so no one has done it the same. What is really interesting is that we have all used different approaches.
"What I would like to think is that there is more to come. This is the time we want to see the best out of our players. That is the whole point."
Cue Henry. Now is his time to pull all the strings together and mastermind consecutive performances with which no one else can live.
He's jumped over barriers, flirted with the rules, defied convention and all the time he's delivered the results to justify the risks.
This is it, though. Every risk he has taken along the way was designed to mature in the first three weeks of October.
So'oialo is adamant the policy will mature as stated in the small print.
"The conditioning window allowed me to work on certain areas and now I feel stronger. I feel faster. The biggest difference is that I'm enjoying my rugby a lot more."
The line between genius and lunacy is fine. Maybe Henry will already have fallen on the wrong side with a defeat in Cardiff.
Maybe he'll fall this week, or the week after. Or maybe history will judge him a genius, with a World Cup victory to prove it.
Since 2004 the mantra has been 'better people make better All Blacks'. Having decimated the Super 14 this year, Henry needs to prove that better athletes also make better All Blacks.
