Sean Fitzpatrick: All Blacks managing player transitions much better now

Younger All Blacks are being better incorporated into the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images

This column was written, because of deadlines, ahead of this morning's test against England - but I will be amazed if the All Black class of 2013 does not pass the England exam with colours flying higher than last year.

That has nothing to do with revenge and all that - and everything to do with how this team, this squad, has grown over the past 12 months. They have done exactly what Steve Hansen and Co asked them to - to find another 15 per cent, to build on what they had already built.

I know some people are looking at this squad and people like Tony Woodcock, Keven Mealamu, Dan Carter and Richie McCaw and are starting to quibble about the age thing. But then you have to look at the balance of that squad and how well Hansen and Co are managing it - and you have to look at people like Brodie Retallick.

He was only 21 when he played in a beaten All Black team against England last year. He learned a tremendous amount and has applied that to his work this year. In the 2012 test at Twickenham, the All Blacks were beaten up a little; out-muscled. Most of us thought the All Blacks were going to win by 20 points - and they would have, had they approached that game differently. I know there was a stomach virus and all that but they were basically out-physicalled.

Retallick took that lesson and has really gone to work. He has been outstanding since then and, even though a lot of people think Kieran Read has been the All Blacks' most improved player and best player generally, I think maybe that title goes to Retallick.

He has a tremendous work rate, puts himself about, tackles all day and has one of those constitutions that sees him covering a huge amount of ground, as Read and McCaw do. He has also muscled up in his work at the breakdowns.

Retallick, Read, Sam Whitelock and Liam Messam have all come on a lot, I think, and have been at the core of this All Black team, along with McCaw, Carter and Conrad Smith - all of whom would be on my start list for the 2015 World Cup.

Some will say that the team is ageing fast but I had some experience of that with the 1991 World Cup team and in 1997, when a lot of senior All Blacks moved on and the team hadn't really been backed up with emerging young players the way it is now.

Different eras make comparisons difficult and, in those days, if you weren't good enough to start, you didn't get a jersey. It's generally accepted now that we kept too many people on in 1991 after the heady days of 1987-89 and the signs were there when we lost to Australia in Wellington in 1990 and then again in Sydney the following year.

In 1997, we just didn't leave the team in particularly good shape after many of us retired; we hadn't blooded enough people and there were big holes left and shoes to fill.

You cannot say they are making that mistake this time. The All Black coaches and selectors are doing an outstanding job of bringing on young players. None of us like rotation but they have at least performed it extremely well.

Everyone they have chosen deserves to be there. We've seen Sam Cane deputise for McCaw and play really well; we've seen Messam rested and Steven Luatua come in and then we questioned moving Luatua back to the bench as he'd played well too.

These are all good signs that they are getting the balance right when it comes to preserving the form and attitude of the senior players and bringing the youngsters on. The Ireland test, for example, will probably see Andrew Hore's last game at hooker with Dane Coles coming off the bench - and he did well when he did that against France, signalling his progress too.

It will be interesting to see how many of the "progressing" players they will play against Ireland. It will be even more interesting to see whether, in 12 months and a year out from the World Cup, we are still having the debate about pensioning off some of the older guys and promoting younger players.

If they keep managing it this well, my pick is that it will be a long-forgotten topic of discussion.