KEY POINTS:
The prospect of Mils Muliaina playing at centre for the quarter-final against France seems to be high in the All Black selectors' thoughts.
Assistant coach Steve Hansen skirted the question when he returned with Graham Henry and Wayne Smith from a reconnaissance mission to Paris to check out
the form of Argentina and Ireland.
The Pumas' win and an earlier victory for France sealed the qualifiers from their pool and confirmed the All Blacks date with France at Cardiff on Sunday.
Hansen thought the entire All Black squad would be available for tomorrow's selection. First five-eighths Daniel Carter had his problem calf scanned and it showed a minor strain.
"We feel we can manage him through the week and hopefully he will be available."
His fitness, said Hansen, would not affect the balance of the midfield the selectors wanted to start at Millennium Stadium.
"Most people in the room could pick the majority of the side, so that part is pretty easy," Hansen suggested. "But there are two or three positions we are sleeping on and we will have further debate on that."
Asked whether the panel saw Muliaina primarily as a fullback, Hansen ducked an answer by saying he was equally comfortable at fullback or centre.
"You will have to wait and see. There's no point in me telling you now - the French will know what to do and we may as well make them work a little bit for their money."
Hansen said the panel had no problems with any of their midfielders but they did look at how they performed in a variety of combinations.
If Carter or Nick Evans plays at first five-eighths, Luke McAlister will play in midfield and it is a question of whether Conrad Smith has convinced the selectors he is ready for the step up against France.
Injury has left Smith with a limited rugby diet in the World Cup against inferior pool opponents but he has been part of a successful midfield combination before with McAlister against France.
If Smith is deemed not quite sharp enough, a repaired Muliaina may be pushed into centre where he has been used in a number of All Black tests. That would leave fullback as a choice between Leon MacDonald or Evans for the testing quarter-final against the hosts, France.
"We have been waiting for this phase of the competition to start and it did not matter who we got - we were going to get a good side and we have probably got one of the favourites for the tournament, so it is an exciting challenge for us," said Hansen.
"It is probably better to get France in Cardiff than in Paris."
Once the Pumas beat France in the opening game and Ireland struggled, the All Blacks' brains trust had been banking on meeting France in their opening playoff.
The All Blacks may have beaten France regularly in recent times but they are a talented side who demanded respect, as history showed. "If you get too far ahead of yourself you can end up packing your bags and going home, and you don't want to be doing that," Hansen intoned.
"[France] have grown in confidence and that makes them dangerous."
Perhaps the biggest question mark now hangs over No 8 Sione Lauaki, who was to face a World Cup disciplinary hearing overnight after being cited for a dangerous tackle on winger Romanian Gabriel Brezoianu.
* France coach Bernard Laporte said the team would have preferred playing on home soil, but the pre-World Cup horse trading for votes to bidding countries will see France travel to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium to play the All Blacks.
"It's true we would have preferred to have finished first and played in Paris, but that's that, the Argentinians were stronger than us in the pool.
"We will prepare well for New Zealand. Starting tonight we'll talk about it with the players," he said, adding that he thought the All Blacks would not be happy with playing his side, who pulled off a shock 43-31 victory over New Zealand in the 1999 World Cup semifinals.
additional reporting AFP
