Top players will be hard pressed to find gaps in their daunting schedule ahead of the World Cup, writes Gregor Paul.
At this stage, all we know is there won't be a dreaded reconditioning window heading into next year's World Cup. Lessons have been learned on that front.
Other lessons have seemingly been absorbed from the botched 2007 campaign - the most salient being the need to keep preparation low-key.
Planning on how to manage the players over the next 19 months is well under way. The World Cup might still seem a dot on the horizon but the players and coaches are now in their final stage of the cycle.
This is it for them - the last big push - which is why they need to be firming now on how they shape the landscape. There is no room to breathe from now until September 2011. Rugby falls in one continuous block.
The indications are the All Blacks will use their end-of-season tour as a dry run for the World Cup. They are hoping to play six tests in six weeks - which is what they will have to do to win the World Cup.
A Bledisloe test in Asia, probably in Japan, will start proceedings in late October, with the New Zealand Rugby Union hopeful they can persuade France or Italy to play them on November 6, before they take on Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. It's a brutal schedule and will see the All Blacks play their last test on December 4.
There will be 15 tests in 2010. The likes of Dan Carter, Conrad Smith and Kieran Read - who were involved in trial games last week - will be asked to play solidly for more than 10 months.
We all know Henry's contention that this is too long; that if the players were asked to play 15 Super Rugby games, 15 tests and then squeeze in four or five provincial matches, they will be mush by season's end.
The modern game is unforgiving. Henry is right. The chances of finally winning the World Cup will nosedive if he bows to public pressure and tries to appease those who still howl about how horribly wrong he got it in 2007.
The trick this time round for Henry is striking the right balance. He needs to be more certain about his best team than he was in 2007 and he needs to give that side more time together.
The endless rotation witnessed in late 2006 and 2007 can't be seen again. If there is one lesson that has surely been learned from the last campaign, it is the need to have established combinations across the team.
These only come through consistency of selection. Henry is going to have ample opportunity to play his troops into form and establish just who is frontline and who is back-up.
It's probable that only 30 players, maybe 32, will travel at the end of the year. Henry has indicated he wants to be honing in on his World Cup 30 by November. With six tests soon after the Tri Nations, a number of individuals are going to endure big workloads between July and December.
The cost of finding combinations and form has to be balanced. Super 15 begins on the third weekend of February next year and will run through to a truncated Tri Nations. Then the World Cup kicks off. Like it or not, the leading players will need some space to recuperate.
It's unlikely we will see many, if any, frontline All Blacks feature in provincial rugby this year. The rest weeks between Tri Nations tests will be exactly that and the window between the end of the Tri Nations on September 11 and the Grand Slam tour will be used mainly to rest and condition.
Some players might play a couple of provincial games in that period to keep their match sharpness while others won't be seen at all.
With the season stretching into December, it's inevitable some of those who tour won't be available for the first rounds of Super 15. That's what happened this year, with Richie McCaw, Mils Muliaina and Rodney So'oialo opting not to return until week four.
The important thing for Henry is to ensure his squad is match hardened but not blown out by the middle of 2011. That was, arguably, the biggest mistake of 2007.
While the bulk of the All Blacks were fitter, faster and stronger than they had ever been, their instincts and confidence were low as a consequence of limited game-time.
