KEY POINTS:
Manchester is the perfect place for Ross Taylor to arrive as a test star.
The city's star football side is famous for attracting and encouraging rare talent.
Taylor's brilliant and unbeaten 154 in the second test against England could be a significant launching pad and a signal for the rest of us to fasten the seat belts in genuine hope on a road littered with wrecks and side streets to nowhere.
Believing in Black Cap selections isn't quite Lotto, because the odds aren't that good. Every now and then though, a gem turns up and just as the thin line of elegant batting that extended from Martin Crowe to Stephen Fleming appeared ready to fade out, Taylor has emerged.
One of the English television commentators mentioned Taylor in the same breath as Crowe on Saturday night, although he had to suck in deeply because the more conventional Crowe must be rated as a class above for now.
Taylor is a confusing if exhilarating sight, so obsessed with the leg side at times that you imagine he could scoop the pie cart over the mid-wicket boundary.
He is capable of poise and grace to match the finest batsmen and plays the full range of shots, but this expansiveness can extend to looking like someone trying to chop down a willow rather than playing expertly with one.
Then the elegance re-emerges. He played a straight drive at Manchester which Greg Chappell would have been proud of, with the bat sliding up so perfectly that he almost disappeared behind the blade. Gorgeous.
New Zealand has, hopefully, got the number four batting position sorted out, and let's all pray the selectors don't tamper with Taylor's prospects by shifting him to number three, which in New Zealand teams is a de facto opening position. He is a batter to be saved as much as possible from the new ball, especially in these formative parts of his international career.
At the risk of this column being undone by overnight events, the midpoint in the three-test series finds the combatants in familiar positions - New Zealand isn't quite as bad as we often imagine and England aren't as good as they like to be regarded.
What is constantly missing from New Zealand's game is a truly major score from a top-four batsman, and Taylor's Old Trafford triumph has shown what effect one of those can have.
It might even have been better. The very luckiest rabbit's foot would have little effect on a rabbit tail of Iain O'Brien and Chris Martin - their batting doesn't give good fortune a chance. So Taylor was denied the chance to charge at a double century.
In contrast to Fleming, Taylor might prove to be a player who regularly goes on with the job. He has such an attacking ability that his good days will be very, very good. He was sublime at times, and made an average English bowling attack pay dearly.
With Jamie How doing a respectable job, it remains for the selectors to find his opening partner, plus a reliable number three. Aaron Redmond and James Marshall don't appear to have the goods.
Jessie Ryder waits in the wings - if he can manage to clip his own wings late at night.
Ryder's technique would be a major punt in the five-day game. Just imagine, though, a perfect test when the wild talents of Ryder, Taylor, Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum successfully coincide, supported by a cameo or two from the likes of Daniel Vettori and Kyle Mills. Yes, a dream perhaps, but New Zealand cricket has long survived on those.
* Hail the mighty Crusaders and especially that everyman footballer Leon MacDonald. Yet again, the red and blacks are flying the flag for rugby in this country. But what about those Hurricanes? They were woeful.
The Hurricanes' Super 14 semifinal chances plummeted the moment Rodney So'oialo was ruled out. The captain plays with a ferocity that glues his wobbly team together. But they didn't have to be that bad.
The Hurricanes had so much to play for in this retreaded All Black era but they did what they always do, turning out to be flakes on the big stage.
Colin Cooper's mob were pathetic in Christchurch. Absolutely pathetic. Where was the cohesion, the desperation, the belief in the cause? The big names failed to fire - their best may well have been the unheralded lock Jeremy Thrush.
Once again, Robbie Deans has proved a supreme coach, in tactics and motivation. Australia's luring of the great man is a master stroke, and the meeting of the super strategist and the Aussie players' football instincts makes for an interesting - frightening - prospect. What a crying shame that Dean's unique gifts will not influence our national side.
A Crusader mystery though: why do so many people make a fuss about Stephen Brett, whom Deans wisely benched for Saturday night's game.
Brett makes so many pundits' likely All Blacks squad yet is a defensive trouble spot and lacks a test-quality ruthlessness and incisiveness. Maybe I've missed something, but it's a struggle to understand the fanfare.
* Hooray for the Canterbury Bulldogs, who will take Sonny Bill Williams to court and probably the cleaners if he tries to break his contract to pursue rugby union ambitions.
The Kiwis should follow suit and give the swaggering superstar the heave-ho if he continues to prattle on about playing for the All Blacks - they'll never break out of the test cellar with half-hearted attitudes like that.
Williams' pre-centenary test ravings about playing rugby were an insult. Who needs this misguided young man's divided loyalties? SBW needs to realise he is playing a team game, and his teammates - not to mention the fans - deserve a whole lot more than he is giving.
