KEY POINTS:
All those hoping to see an end to player rotation should resign themselves to the reality it is not going to go away.
We might not see wholesale changes from week to week in 2008 but there will continue to be a heavy reliance on the wider All Black squad.
That's the view of the bulk of representatives at the recent IRB lock-down in Woking, where the integrated season was debated during a three-day conference.
For all the opposition towards the lack of consistency in All Black selections, the evidence tabled in Woking by a host of nations suggests the international game is taking a far greater physical toll on players than many realise.
While the criticism of rotation has been that it has devalued the currency of test football, administrators were unanimous in Woking that international football will only retain the highest quality if players are rested and not flogged.
What the suits agreed is that test football has to remain the jewel in the crown. It has to be meaningful and feature the best players. But here is where things get a little fuzzy. The definition of best players is open to interpretation.
To the paying public, the best players mean exactly that - the men deemed to have no peer in their respective positions.
To the international coaching fraternity, best players mean those in their respective positions who might be freshest, free of injury and in the best frame of mind for a particular game.
"There was a recognition [in Woking] that international rugby is quality rugby," said New Zealand Rugby Players Association boss Rob Nichol. "That means if you ask players to front, say, over a six-week block it is not going to be conducive to producing quality rugby.
"Some people might ask why the players can play week after week in Super 14 and not do it in tests. If you ask the players, they will say that international rugby is 100 per cent, in that it takes everything out of them physically and emotionally.
"Super 14, they would say, is about 75 per cent to 80 per cent and that is a big difference. People have to remember that the current All Black management team are not the first to implement rotation. John Mitchell and Robbie Deans had a similar initiative on the end-of-year tour in 2002."
Nichol is just as forthright on the other thorny problem of reconditioning. The agreement reached in Woking is that players in both hemispheres should have a 10-week period where they will not be required to play any rugby.
That period - which includes a genuine four-week holiday where they have no obligations to clubs or franchises - is kept clear so elite players can prepare adequately and condition for the season ahead.
With the All Blacks not likely to finish their test commitments until early December next year, that means that if New Zealand is to give its best players the recommended reconditioning time, they will be integrated into their franchises just days before the tournament starts.
But Nichol says: "Rotation and reconditioning are not going to disappear and anyone who thinks they are is wrong.
"I know of between 10 to 15 players who would have left New Zealand at the end of this year were it not for the fact they got a break during reconditioning. These guys were about to fall over, they had had enough and would have gone overseas. You talk about the damage in value to broadcast contracts by taking the players out to recondition but what damage would have been caused if another 10 to 15 players had left?
"There has been an acknowledgement now that maybe there could have been some more flexibility around the reconditioning.
"Some players could maybe have come back a little earlier but at the time, the NZRU wanted to keep all franchises the same."
