KEY POINTS:
As the world leader in player welfare, it sits uncomfortably with New Zealand's rugby fraternity that the country's elite players are afforded the shortest off-season of all major nations.
While England and France have now reached contractual agreement on an 11-week window of off-season rest and reconditioning for their elite players, New Zealand still lags behind with an eight-week period for the players to get ready for 2009.
The preferred scenario would be for those players on tour with the All Blacks to have a minimum of 11 weeks to prepare, preferably 12. That, if granted, would do much to alter the rugby landscape in New Zealand.
The All Blacks returning from the tour of Britain and Ireland are entitled to four weeks' rest. But while they're resting, their Super 14 colleagues are completing gruelling conditioning sessions. What usually happens after the four-week lay-off is that touring All Blacks complete a couple of weeks of conditioning on their own and then rejoin their franchise in mid to late January - when the franchises are into warm-up games and are on a reduced training schedule.
Among the dangers with the current set-up is that All Blacks don't put down enough of a fitness base to endure the season.
This is why the New Zealand Rugby Union is trying hard to push back the start of Super 14 to mid-March from 2010 - so players can be prepared for a longer season.
"We have met with the Super 14 coaches and the conditioners so they are very aware of the mandatory break and the lead in to the Super 14," says assistant All Black coach Wayne Smith. "All the Super 14 coaches understand the need for fresh players. It is probably not as long we would like. I think 12 weeks would be ideal but, if they are managed right and there is not too much pressure put on too quickly, then they recover pretty quickly."
