Chris Rattue: Time to reassess Jack's status as All Black fixture

The rugby citizen of the month is Robin Brooke, who briefly untied his grocery store apron to take on the most intensely watched sports assignment in the land - sorting out the All Blacks lineout.

No ex-All Black, and certainly not one of Brooke's standing, turns down his country when the coach calls.

Come Saturday night, he may be ducking for cover behind the bread rolls and tinned sardines if the Wallabies have embarrassed the All Black pack at Eden Park, although it is unfair to expect the Auckland hard man to produce an instant miracle of loaves and fishes proportions.

Given the extent of Graham Henry's rotation tactics, Brooke might have even got big match jitters when the All Blacks rang last week, although it's uncertain whether Brooke would have felt relieved or not when his old Auckland coach asked him to do a locum as the National Lineout Doctor.

They say that coaching is far more stressful than playing and Brooke is right in the firing line, a place the All Black lineout struggles to find.

The stakes are high. Find a lineout that has more than a half share of good days, and one that leaks a bit of oil rather than completely seizing on the bad ones, and the All Blacks are well on the way to becoming the ruling class in world rugby.

Fail, and it significantly raises the chances that the great prize of world rugby, a trophy so valued that the New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Chris Moller appears almost happy to accept a sub-standard French touring team here next year, may elude the All Blacks again in Europe later in 2007.

Henry's All Blacks have so much going for them, especially a core of confidence which is enabling them to emerge in triumph out of tough situations.

They also have two genuine greats of the game in Richie McCaw and Dan Carter on which to plan their campaigns, a mighty front row, and wings that other countries - bar maybe Australia - would die for.

Henry's All Blacks win under pressure, and relentlessly drive in on defence, squeezing the life out of attacks. But a lack of confidence in ball supply is hindering an ability to jam a foot on the throat of Tri-Nations opponents who are not in their prime.

The effect of a spluttering lineout ripples throughout this team and is leaving us all to wonder what they might truly be capable of.

Ali Williams is always in the dock but if the long-suffering lineout destructs many more times the way it did in Brisbane, it will be time to reassess whether Chris Jack, a test fixture in most minds, is worthy of the rating.

That's not to call for his dropping now, but it has to be said that scrutiny of the veteran is scant considering the lineout problems and compared with the venom aimed in other directions.

As unlikely as this might seem, there are other options. The Otago lock James Ryan for one, currently recuperating from shoulder surgery, plays with an intelligence and nerve that appears lacking in the upper echelon lineout right now. Jason Eaton's athleticism is also there for all to see, although his test lineout contributions have been minimal.

Why Jack's reputation remains unscathed through disasters such as the Brisbane balls-up is as mysterious as the tactics which permeate the lineout. There are hookers and No 8s and halfbacks of recent years who have not been offered nearly the same sort of public leeway Jack has enjoyed.

Maybe in this case, one mystery leads to another. Maybe joint responsibility in an area the punter struggles to understand, along modern rugby mumbo-jumbo, is shielding some culprits.

In times past however, the strongest of characters have filled the locking positions in All Black test packs, men who were renowned for sorting problems out for themselves.

"Tiny" White, "Tiny" Hill, Colin Meads, Peter Whiting, Andy Haden, Frank Oliver, Gary Whetton, Brooke, Ian Jones. They had their flaws, some of them, but they were not to be trifled with in their own distinctive ways.

A few came from eras where the lineout tactics could be as crude as either out-jumping the opponent or promising him a rough landing. It's a different world now, one that Brooke has been a part of, but the uncompromising attitude central to success remains much the same.

Exhibit one in this locking argument, in this era, would be England's World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson, a gnarled and ferocious old-fashioned battler who drew a mighty pack around him. In what should be the prime of his career, it is difficult to see Jack in this light.

For all of Brooke's doctoring, there has to be increasing pressure on Jack, the senior All Black forward, to start taking on that sort of mantle. Even his work in the air in Brisbane when the ball was within his grasp often failed.

Lineouts have surely not changed to such an extent that it is acceptable to see such inactivity in all of the All Black locks while McCaw hurls himself about in their place. Brooke has kept strategies close to his chest but it would be a major surprise if he did not encourage a return to the days when the locks were there to rule the air, to take the opposition on, with the implied demand that if they didn't, someone might be found in their place.

While the lineout continues to shake, we can only wonder at the potential of a backline that, with any luck, will soon include Sitiveni Sivivatu.

With so much doubt over the All Blacks' ability to retain their own lineout ball, or even deliver it with precision when they do manage to get the first grab, it could even be affecting other selections and especially the use of a defensive orientated centre until now.

Isaia Toeava's quick hands will be holding a poisoned chalice if the lineout screws up again on Saturday night, and there is an increasing frustration that Joe Rokocoko and company are not being allowed to run free.

The grocer has taken stock. It remains to be seen if we get a delivery.