David Leggat: Couch potatoes, steel yourselves

So here's the plan.

Lunch, then settle down for Southland taking on the defending champions Canterbury at 2pm.

3.30pm, get up, stretch the legs, take the dog round the block, then back in time for Northland v Wellington, David Holwell returning to his old backyard and up against the team he spent so long steering round the country's NPC first division grounds.

5.30pm, hmmm, what's for dinner? Peel the spuds, feed the dog, a spot of refreshment then it's North Harbour at Albany, looking to repeat last year's win over their nearest and dearest from across the bridge.

7.30pm, dinner, dishes, a spot of R and R before the Big One over the Tasman.

Not forgetting the Warriors, the Ashes, the English premier league soccer kicking off and the US PGA golf, which tomorrow is in the third round, what the players call moving day - not moving as in emotional, moving as in that's the day you make your move up the leaderboard.

So as that corny old music commercial fronted by an American with a fake tan, botoxed eyes and an obvious rug on top used to say, the hits just keep on coming.

There are people who will do that this weekend. Sit on the couch in sporting heaven. Where were we before Sky? Come to think of it, where were we before television?

A far healthier nation for one thing, but that's for another day.

As for the Bledisloe Cup, could this be the first time there's some real juice on the current All Black selectors? Each regime gets a period of grace. Call it bedding-in time.

But how long will that extend if they are beaten by a Wallaby team poorer in class man for man, but invariably imbued with a spirit which makes them desperately difficult for us to beat?

Reaction to the All Blacks loss in Cape Town last weekend seemed muted. There was the odd grumble but not much more. Which, given the usual fallout, is remarkable.

It means as a rugby-loving nation we are either becoming more tolerant of defeat (no); took the collective view it was merely an off-day and no need to fret because they weren't far off clicking (probably); can see what the selectors' grand plan is and have extended the period of grace (maybe); or are saving the splutterings for this test (in the case of a loss at Telstra Stadium, tune in tomorrow for the answer).

An All Black win means all they need is back-to-back home victories and the Tri-Nations is settled. Simple. Yeah, right.

Defeat will bring the critics off the couch. Nothing surer.

There is a sense that as the World Cup in two years is the end game, all this, and next year, is just preparatory.

So does it matter if there's the occasional blip along the way, as Graham Henry has told us there will be?

Well, yes, because this is a nation attuned to rugby success. We don't like coming second because generations before us haven't. Why should we accept being less than the best? That's just the way it is.

Finally, back to the NPC.

Over 29 years, it has been the proving ground for future All Blacks.

So lever yourself off that couch, get out and savour the best provincial competition in the game. It will be different next year; 14 professional teams, 12 amateur.

But hopefully not so different that the simple pleasures derived from supporting your province over three decades are done in by the march to modernise the NPC.