Chris Rattue: Where have all those All Blacks gone?

Brad Thorn's walk from the Cursaders/Highlanders game left few frontline All Blacks in play. Photo / APN

The band played on as the good ship All Black turned a bit Titanic-like.

There was no stopping the brass band, which trumpeted away throughout the heavyweight clash between the Crusaders and Jamie Joseph's resurgent Highlanders at Nelson.

Well, it was a heavyweight clash in name, although a host of leading players were missing from both sides, mainly through injury.

The All Blacks of top note have evaporated in the first two months of the Super 15.

For the moment, we're on a ghost ship sailing towards the World Cup. The gremlins are threatening to become omens.

The early departure of Brad Thorn from the Nelson match added to the image that the Super 15 has turned into an All Black Lite zone.

Thorn is such a brick of a bloke, the quintessential hard man, that watching him amble off unassisted is disconcerting.

His early exit made the job of spotting a frontline All Black more difficult.

The overall search for an established All Black in form and unaffected by injury leads to a relative few including Keven Mealamu, Owen Franks and Kieran Read, and Crusaders loosie Read was rested over the weekend.

The absentees through injury now include fringe All Blacks Adam Thomson and Andy Ellis, who are widely regarded as standouts in the Super 15 so far.

The attrition rate in rugby appears to be getting steadily higher by the season.

Current form is also a huge concern in some areas, especially the back three - as All Black coach Graham Henry has admitted.

Many of the injuries are reportedly minor, such as the elbow complaint which kept Jimmy Cowan out of the Nelson match or the neck problem which briefly sidelined the Blues' heavy hitter Jerome Kaino.

Injuries are so commonplace these days that the situation exposes how they could play a huge part when the World Cup is decided.

Put it this way: it's unlikely that any leading team will turn up unaffected, and a few may be seriously impacted.

For now, Daniel Carter's hamstring injury and Richie McCaw's dodgy foot are potential topics for national obsession - of David Beckham's metatarsal proportions.

* You be the captain.

Did veteran lock Chris Jack get it right or wrong when the Crusaders took a tap kick in the final moments of their 26-18 defeat against Highlanders?

By my reckoning, Jack - the stand-in captain after Ellis had departed - got it wrong on two counts.

Cool thinking under pressure should be a hot topic in New Zealand rugby, considering mental lapses have been at the core of All Black World Cup downfalls.

Okay, there wasn't much chance of the Crusaders snatching a win against the Highlanders in the final moments. But the game isn't over until it's over. Anything is possible, even in the final minute.

Taking the penalty goal attempt not only represented the best chance the Crusaders had of securing a bonus point (by reducing the margin to less than eight), it was also the only way they could construct a last-gasp win.

They needed to score twice to secure a draw or victory.

Because there was only a minute or so left, the time-consuming try scoring gambit in this game within a game meant the Crusaders would automatically be denied an opportunity to score again.

So the best choice was, surely, to take a prompt penalty, hope there was still time left on the clock, and secure possession from the kick-off.

Maybe Jack thought attempting to score a try was the best bonus point option, as opposed to trying to land an angled penalty. But at that level of professional sport, goalkickers should be relied upon.

Maybe I've misread the situation somewhere.

But sports such as American football, basketball, and sometimes league are more aware of the smart options in these sorts of situations than rugby. Perhaps that's because they occur less frequently in rugby, the game is less structured, and an amateur ethos remains.

There were even strains of old rugby machismo in the Crusaders' decision. Had the goalkick proved to be the final act of the game, it would have looked like a meek surrender. Better, instead, to engage in one more muscular battle.

Brawn is fine, imperative, but brains are just as important.

* Highlanders flanker Jarrad Hoeata made a major statement with a crunching display against the Crusaders.

Who knows about the vital technical aspects for loose forwards, because rugby's pile-ups are largely a mystery to these eyes.

But anyone who hits as hard as Hoeata is going to be of interest to the national selectors. The utility lock/loose forward from Taranaki looks a decent prospect.

* All power to the Highlanders, who have proved a lot of us wrong in pushing for a play-off spot.

They are a marauding and tough side, in old rugby traditions.

The loss may not do the Crusaders any harm. At full strength they are still, without a shadow of a doubt, the side to beat in the Super 15.

Their tough travel schedule was bound to take a toll at some stage.

A loss may actually refocus and re-energise Todd Blackadder's men. The Crusaders are famous for bouncing back and for their dislike of defeat.