Jordie Barrett of the Hurricanes reacts after losing the Round four Super Rugby Transtasman match against the Brumbies. Photosport
Jordie Barrett of the Hurricanes reacts after losing the Round four Super Rugby Transtasman match against the Brumbies. Photosport
This year, more than most, Super Rugby has travelled a path that has only sporadically and vaguely prepared New Zealand's best for what they will encounter in the test arena.
No one is to blame, it's just that without the South Africans and the Australian sides mostly missing a clinicaledge and brute force that defines test football, New Zealand's players have had time, space and opportunity to showcase all their best bits.
If you look at the Sky Super Rugby Transman table and the way the last few weeks have played out, it seems a basis on which to be optimistic bordering on confident about how the All Blacks will go this year.
There is, without question, a talent pool in this country which is the envy of the world and it's tempting to believe that this year could see the All Blacks romp to a number of big wins and tuck away all the silverware they can.
The health of the rugby ecosystem is signalled by the fact that Sam Cane was ruled out for most of the year only for Dalton Papali'i to establish himself as the best number seven in the competition.
Caleb Clarke emerged from nowhere last year as the new Jonah and yet his place in the national squad this year would have been under pressure even had he not returned to sevens, as Leicester Fainga'anuku and Salesi Ryasi are now offering equally compelling packages of power, pace and polish.
Jack Goodhue's knee collapsed in March and David Havili stepped into the Crusaders vacant No 12 shirt and has played so well he has to now be the first choice to play there for the All Blacks.
Any attempt to conquer the world starts with the question of whether the talent is there to make the mission possible and for New Zealand, the answer is a resounding yes.
The raw materials are in place, leading to the next question of just how raw they are in terms of their readiness to play test football next month?
And it's here where the picture is not so easy to assess. What's been reiterated this year is that there is a universal brilliance at playing unstructured rugby. New Zealand's five teams are alchemists when it comes to turning opposition mistakes into points.
What's also become apparent, is that there has been an across-the-board lift in set-piece work and all five New Zealand sides, to varying degrees of success, have used their scrum as more than a launchpad from which to attack, but as a weapon in its own right.
And, just as obvious this year, has been the improvement all New Zealand sides have made at being able to form effective driving mauls.
A disappointed Leicester Faingaanuku of the Crusaders during the Sky Super Rugby Transtasman match against he Force. Photosport
There is then some sense of Super Rugby having prepared the players for what lies ahead.
But this weekend, with the Crusaders failing to secure a bonus point and the Hurricanes losing in Canberra, provided a hint, or even a reminder, that the All Blacks have developed an Achilles Heel that, given the nature of this year's fixture list, could be exposed to a detrimental extent.
What's hurt the All Blacks in recent years is their ability to piece their attack game together in the face of staunch defence, bruising collision work and strong set-piece rugby.
When games have been slow and confrontational, it hasn't been easy for the All Blacks to work out how to break down a defence and in Christchurch there were signs that, under pressure, New Zealand's best players don't yet have the ability to produce smart game management.
In Canberra, where the Hurricanes faced a determined and relentless Brumbies defence, the same problems arose: the visitors didn't have the patience to graft.
New Zealand teams are brilliant right up until the game doesn't flow the way they expect and they have to adapt. It's almost as if rugby without imagination is beneath them – that they won't compromise their attacking ideals, sully their ambition with something so crass as relentless box kicking.
The sad truth about test football, though, is that it has become a war of attrition and inches and there will be games this year - many in fact - that require attacking principles to be reconsidered in the quest for victory.
If the All Blacks are to succeed in 2021, win the volume of games everyone expects, the coaching team needs to inject resilience and game management into the hard drive and persuade the players they have to be prepared to use their phenomenal skills in ways they currently don't.
If winning was just about possessing more basic rugby talent than everyone else: being better at pass, catch, run, then the All Blacks would be untouchable.
It would also mean that Super Rugby has set the All Blacks up perfectly for what lies ahead.
Neither of these things are true, however. Super Rugby has built a base from which the All Blacks can work, but as every mountaineer knows, the summit of Everest is a long way from base camp.
