By JIM KAYES in Aix-en-Provence - Fairfax Media | Friday, 28 September 2007
The All Blacks often say they have left no stone unturned in planning their campaign to win the World Cup.
The preparation certainly has been thorough.
World Cup campaign manager Steve Cottrell has been to France seven times checking out grounds, hotels, routes, food and more.
Team manager Darren Shand has been here five times for similar reconnaissance.
Coach Graham Henry also made it clear before he had even named his squad that his planning for the pool games was done and all 30 of the players would be used in the four games.
He reiterated that stance when he named his side last night to play Romania on Saturday night (11pm NZ time) with 12 changes from the 'top side' that beat Scotland last Monday.
There's a lot of sense to the logic of using his full squad as it gives everyone a chance to push for a place in the top team and should ensure there are few if any unhappy campers. If there was one lesson Henry learnt from when he coached the Lions to Australia in 2001 it was that idle hands truly are the devil's work.
Henry focused heavily on his Lions test side in Australia and those left on the fringes were a damaging and disruptive influence with the squad.
There seems no chance of a repeat of such divisiveness here in France.
Yet, some rules are meant to be broken and Henry's pre-World Cup team sheets should have been shredded as he watched the All Blacks at Murrayfield.
If that muddled performance showed anything it was that the All Blacks' top side needs more time together.
A match against Romania in Toulouse tomorrow could have been a perfect dress rehearsal for a probable quarter-final in Cardiff next week against hosts France.
Henry's record with the All Blacks is fantastic. They have played 47 tests and lost only five - three to South Africa and two to Australia.
Even this year when the players were coming off a truncated Super 14 season and had their eyes on the looming World Cup, they lost only once [to Australia] as they retained the Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations trophy.
Henry's All Blacks are unbeaten in Europe and swept aside the Lions in 2005.
The coaches have also shown they are big enough to learn from their mistakes, especially after they lost the Tri-Nations in 2004 with away defeats to Australia and South Africa.
So there has to be an element of "trust us, we know what we're doing" at this World Cup.
But that doesn't dispel the feeling that the All Blacks "First XV" needs another game together - if not a few more.
The team that runs out at Toulouse's Le Stadium should be the side Henry and co think will start in Cardiff next week, with only two possible exceptions.
Mils Muliaina is the All Blacks' best fullback, perhaps second in the world only to Chris Latham, and if his hamstring needs another week, so be it.
Keith Robinson also had to start his first match after missing the first three games with a calf injury and if he can quickly return to the peak of his powers he is a strong contender for the top XV anyway.
But what is achieved by playing so many of the second stringers other than to just give them another game in the World Cup?
Sure they might be called upon for injuries - but that's contingency planning and the All Blacks have more immediate concerns than what might happen.
Scotland were the first side to put the All Blacks under any sort of pressure and while they scored six tries, the test will be remembered more for the long list of errors.
It was a graphic example of how the All Blacks need more game time.
Sure it's good no stone has been left unturned in the All Blacks planning for this campaign in France.
But will they rue having their selections plans so set in concrete?
The answer will come in Cardiff .
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