Gregor Paul: Creating the ultimate forwards

Wallabies coach John Connolly said during the week that the All Blacks' time was now. He spoke in admiring tones of the power of their scrummaging and acknowledged the sage work of Graham Henry in putting set-piece proficiency at the top of the agenda.

Given Connolly's love of wreaking psychological mischief, he might not have been genuine. For Australia's sake, hopefully it was just another attempt to unsettle the All Blacks - a Trojan Horse compliment inducing uneasiness among the constant flow of barbs.

If Connolly really does believe Henry has built a set-piece rugby team, then he needs to sharpen his analysis.

Henry has categorically killed off the set-piece forward. When England won the World Cup in 2003, they had a pack full of luggers like Graham Rowntree and Julian White whose only goal in life was to chug from one set piece to the next.

It gave the team solidity and, from that base, the limited skills of those further out had a chance to shine.

When Henry took over from John Mitchell, he reckoned the All Blacks needed to be a little more like England and have the forwards worry more about shifting the pianos rather than playing them.

Scrum guru Mike Cron was brought in to help him in that mission but the intention was never to create a White or Rowntree. Henry has been quietly building the ultimate hybrid forwards - athletes who can master the technical and contribute in the less structured phases.

Tony Woodcock made a horrid mess of Connolly's great hope, Rodney Blake, in Christchurch and yet still managed to get near the top of the tackle count. Carl Hayman, too, can crank the gears in the tight and then appear in the backline.

That's why Woodcock and Hayman are the dream pairing. They are like amphibious vehicles - capable of tackling opponents in different ways. And that is the benchmark for aspiring All Blacks now. It is no longer good enough to be just a scrummager. Campbell Johnstone found that out. And it is no longer good enough to be an impact ball-carrier like Kees Meeuws.

Henry has built a pack that comes with the full package. If Connolly wants Australia back on top of the world, he must extend his vision beyond simply improving the Wallabies' work at the set piece. That is just the start of the process.

Daniel Vickerman does some sterling work at the lineout but, unlike Chris Jack or Ali Williams, he is rarely sighted anywhere else.

Nathan Sharpe, too, needs to go looking for the ball and carry for some hard yards and Guy Shepherdson just might not be the right guy at all. He's young and raw and has time to get there. Right now, though, he looks like another Bill Young, a kind of bar-room forward who has no concept of Queensbury Rules.

As for Blake, he needs to attend to his technical deficiencies at the scrum. And the worry for the Australians is that if he actually puts in a full shift at the coalface, he will have no juice left in the tank to make those charging runs of his.

Building total athletes takes time. Woodcock, Hayman and Williams are still works in progress.

But they are works that have been progressing a lot longer than their Wallaby counterparts.