Rugby: All Blacks already building towards 2019 World Cup

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the All Blacks are operating with half an eye on the 2019 World Cup.

By the end of the year it will no doubt become more obvious that the All Blacks used the Rugby Championship to subtly begin the process of building and developing a squad and style of football they think will work in Japan at the next tournament.

There are signs of the long term thinking everywhere. Ben Smith's sabbatical is one of the more obvious.

The All Blacks coaches can't be certain but their best projection is that Smith will remain a vital component of their back three in 2019. Be it at fullback, or more likely wing, the 31-year-old vice-captain is a player head coach Steve Hansen wants at the World Cup.

Smith's sabbatical is all about giving him the space he needs to mentally and physically recharge to make it to Japan.

Owen Franks is another who is now being managed with 2019 in mind. He has a long-standing Achilles problem that needs either a prolonged period of not playing or surgery.

The 29-year-old was going to play in Dunedin and then miss the remainder of the Rugby Championship. His late withdrawal from the starting team for Saturday has brought his non-involvement forward by a week and given the coaching team longer to develop Nepo Laulala and Ofa Tu'ungafasi.

Both are in their mid-20s and both have been identified as World Cup probables and the plan now will be to try to build their respective playing time so they can reach 2019 with ample experience.

By the time Franks returns - and at this stage that is unclear - the All Blacks are hoping one of Laulala or Tu'ungafasi will have developed to the point where they can provide the same second half punch that Charlie Faumuina used to deliver.

The midfield is another area where the World Cup is already on the horizon. It's a reasonable guess that the coaches see Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty as their preferred pairing and one that they would like to develop through to 2019.

It's a vital part of the field for the All Blacks to get right and history shows that teams are more likely to win a World Cup if they have an established midfield combination.

What the All Blacks also discovered is that if they can have a regular midfield bench option who can work well with one or both of the established starters, then it deepens the attacking mix.

In 2015 it was Williams who played that role, regularly combining with either Ma'a Nonu or Conrad Smith. Anton Lienert-Brown, who can play at both 12 and 13, is being groomed for that same job in 2019.

"It would be nice to get a bit of stability," All Blacks coach Steve Hansen said of the midfield. "If you look at this year we haven't been able to do that much and I think Anton [Lienert-Brown] has got to come into that equation, too.

"I think he showed us enough last year to suggest he gives us a really good option as a third one and growing his ability to be able to come and do things for us is going to be important too.

"And then we have Ngani [Laumape] sitting in the background who is learning and getting more comfortable in the environment."

If there is one World Cup development area not currently on track, it is halfback. Ideally, once Tawera Kerr-Barlow announced he would be heading to France in October - the coaches would have liked to have begun the process of finding a third option this year.

But they have ruled that out on the basis they haven't yet seen anyone whom they feel has shown enough form or ability to handle the demands of test football.