All Blacks v Argentina: Gregor Paul - The biggest sign that the All Blacks have turned the corner

OPINION:

There is, finally, a sense of an All Blacks top team emerging. There is at last hope that a team which has spent the last 12 months bouncing from brilliant to bad and all points in between, is now going to lose the volatility and uncertainty by buying hard into selection consistency.

The road to how we got here may have been unconventional, bumpier than it needed to be and perhaps a little too reliant on fate killing a few possible wrong selection options, but here we are nevertheless with more answers than questions.

Having been able to pick to play Argentina 22 of the 23 who were involved at Ellis Park, head coach Ian Foster has been able to give the clearest signal yet that he's ready to commit to a tighter group and settle on what his key combinations are.

For now, it looks like the All Blacks believe they have the modern front-row they were looking for. They have a back-up unit, too, and no longer is Foster having to pick between scrummagers and ball players – he now has props who can do it all and it might be, should be, that the likes of Nepo Laulala, Angus Ta'avao and Ofa Tuungafasi are all kept in action with their provinces during the Rugby Championship and told to provide reasons why they should be recalled to the All Blacks.

Shannon Frizell may not be the long-term answer at six, but he's probably the answer for now, or at least until Brodie Retallick is match fit again.

Once Retallick is back, the All Blacks may see they have two paths to set up their loose trio – the way they are going against the Pumas with Frizell, Sam Cane and Ardie Savea, or alternatively, with Scott Barrett, Cane and Savea.

Shannon Frizell in action against the Springboks. Photo / Photosport

Not everyone will love the idea of having two paths to consider, but it's the nature of test rugby to have flexibility and choice – the means to pose different opposition different problems and sharing game time between Barrett and Frizell provides some confidence that the options at blindside have at least narrowed to two.

Whether David Havili and Rieko Ioane would have been Foster's first choice midfield in a world where both Anton Lienert-Brown and Jack Goodhue were fit, doesn't now matter.

Those two, perhaps thrown together by circumstance, produced enough in South Africa to believe that they deserve more time together and it might be that the very fact some confidence has been shown in them, that they now start to more regularly produce the quality work that they did in Johannesburg.

The pity of Beauden Barrett not being fit is that it has left just a hint of doubt as to whether Foster has made a hard commitment to Richie Mo'unga as his preferred No 10 for now.

The assumption would have to be that he has, and that even if Barrett had been fit, he would have started on the bench as to have dropped Mo'unga after his bold display would make him wonder whether he was being used just to try to light a fire under his more experienced rival.

The victory at Ellis Park, it would seem, didn't just provide career salvation, it brought clarity to how Foster wants his All Blacks to play.

All Blacks coach Ian Foster. Photo / Photosport

There is now, most definitely, an attacking blueprint to be developed and a benchmark produced in terms of what level of effort the players need to give.

More than that, though, it feels like Ellis Park vindicated Foster's conviction in himself, his plan and his methods as it would be no surprise if he revealed that he had periods in the last two months when he doubted himself and his ideas.

But one win may have chased the mental demons elsewhere and there is maybe even a little confidence building that the All Blacks are now a team with the potential to push on to win the Rugby Championship.

And, who knows, if the rugby Gods are kind and injuries don't strike at the rate they have been, then we may be looking at an All Blacks side that grows into something considerably more dangerous and potent for the remainder of this year and arrives in France for the World Cup next year considerably more feared than it has been.

Of course, all this optimism could be killed this week in Christchurch if the All Blacks can't build on the performance they produced at Ellis Park.

But it's hard to see disaster looming this weekend. Hard, because the All Blacks really do feel like they have turned a corner.

Not because they won a solitary test, more because of what they have endured and what they have survived in the last two months and what hasn't killed them, has made them stronger.