This is an unusual Super 12 in that there has been more talk about next year's Super 14 than this year's Super 12. Also, the All Black management's hand can be seen taking a firmer grip on the competition than ever before.
They have asked, for example, that Norm Maxwell play only six or seven games in the Super 12 to preserve and extend his career. I guess when you are short of Keith Robinson at lock for the All Blacks, you would want to look after a player like Maxwell, especially when the locking cupboard is pretty bare and when Norm's various physical issues don't allow him to play a full match.
It now appears that Maxwell may not even be able to play for the Crusaders until April - which might be an issue for the Crusaders but good for the All Blacks.
However, what an opportunity for the young locks who are likely to take Maxwell's place.
Ross Filipo and Kevin O'Neill will get game time and it's a great chance for them to stamp themselves on the competition. O'Neill might be particularly interesting. He's over 2m tall and 115kg and Robbie Deans started him in the practice match against the Reds.
He was part of the New Zealand under-21 team that won the World Cup in 2003. But the problem for players who are being kept in cotton wool is that they don't get the game time.
I don't care what anyone says or how much training you do, there is no substitute for game time.
It makes you battle-hardened and match-fit. If you don't get game time, you can find matches a struggle, especially against the big boys. That can make it harder to win selection even though you have been cotton-woolled, as the replacement players can come along and make their own mark.
There's an old saying in the All Blacks: "Never give a sucker an even break". It means that all the incumbents do not like giving up their place. In any team. Why would they? They worked too hard for it.
But look at the Crusaders again - All Black No 8 Mose Tuiali'i is injured for the first two or three games so he is giving former All Black Sam Broomhall a chance to make the back-row place his own - and that would have obvious repercussions for Mose as regards All Black selection.
However, the Crusaders will be strong and the All Black management will not get everything their own way.
I see Daniel Carter could start at fullback because of the injury to Scott Hamilton and because Leon MacDonald is not yet here.
Andrew Mehrtens will be at first five-eighths and Aaron Mauger at second five-eighths. Not exactly weakening them, is it?
<EM>Richard Loe:</EM> Cotton wool treatment could work against us
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