KEY POINTS:
Depth. We all want it, we don't all have it, but do we really need it?
The immediate answer would normally be a resounding yes, and if you are a Super 14 or club coach it's fair to say surviving at the top end of your competition table without it is nigh on impossible.
What about at the international level though? Is it the magic potion that everyone believes it to be?
In truth, there's no national coach anywhere from Twickenham to Cardiff to Cape Town to Sydney who'd prefer to be thin on the ground in talent as opposed to the alternative. Common sense really. "Greed is good" works for plenty.
But with every silver lining, there is inevitably a lot of cloud, and in the Land of the Long White One, there might be an argument arising from the performances of the past few weeks that suggests an enviable cellar of five-star options can bring with it a downside.
At this stage, that is a problem Australia does not have to deal with.
"Exhibit A", Your Honour, comes from the Junior All Blacks versus Australia "A" in Dunedin last month where the scoreline favoured the home side by something along the lines of a million to not any. Our third-string boys aren't in the same stratosphere as New Zealanders, or for that matter, the South Africans or even the Poms.
But only in extraordinary circumstances do third stringers get the chance to play much of a role in Tri-Nations, Bledisloe or World Cup triumphs. Second-stringers are a vital component of successful squads but after that a distinct scent of gluttony pervades.
Has John Connolly actually got an advantage over Graham Henry in choosing his team and making it tick, because he has what he has and not a lot of options besides?
On the other hand, Henry is the little boy at the ice cream shop trying to work out whether he feels like caramel, vanilla, chocolate, strawberry or (with due homage to the wonderful dairies in your part of the world) hokey-pokey?
He has halfbacks, midfield backs, locks and hookers to burn and, so far this season, it appears that in selection terms every child player has won a prize.
If you're in the All Black mix, you've been given a chance to show your worth. Whether or not that will prove to be the way that team harmony and ideal combinations are best arrived at is yet to be shown.
If one could quantify the All Black team performance in the international season thus far and graph it against a similar quantification of the talent within, nobody could question the fact the talent peak would be way higher than the performance one.
One of the key components to a successful team is feeling comfortable with those beside you on the field of battle, and when that person alongside you changes regularly it does not facilitate attaining that comfort level. It would be foolish to say it makes it impossible, but the history of sport would indicate chopping and changing of personnel is minimal in those teams that have enjoyed consistent success.
So much has changed in the game, but in terms of desiring consistency and regularity in selection I don't think the mindset of players is any different today than it was 50, 20 or 10 years ago.
If you or your teammate are playing well you don't want to be rested, rotated, dropped, shuffled or any other word used for the same end result.
With the number of games played and the ever-hovering World Cup big picture in mind, there are understandable circumstances in which some will be given a spell, but the constant merry-go-round of selections ultimately leads, I believe, to uncertainty.
EVEN the most talented of teams are vulnerable when uncertainty creeps in and, for whatever reason, the All Blacks in recent weeks have looked peculiarly uncertain.
The players will naturally toe the company line when asked if they are comfortable with the direction being steered by the coach and selectors, but most will tell management what they think management want to hear, not what they really and truly think.
Whether that uncertainty again rears it's head tomorrow at Eden Park is anybody's guess, and if it does the Wallabies have to be good enough, clever enough and composed enough to take advantage.
They know better than anyone that whoever wears that black jersey on the field will be an individual of immense talent. Tomorrow and throughout September and October we may all see if copious quantities of talent is all that's needed for results, or if somehow the management of the talent, no matter how vast or otherwise at your disposal, is the more important factor.
A combination of both, I would guess, is the ideal.
* Andrew Slack was the skipper of the last Australian side to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park, on September 6, 1986.
