KEY POINTS:
You give a man a blank cheque. You give him carte blanche to run roughshod over the Super 14. You let him single-handedly challenge the All Blacks' ethos of always playing your best rugby team.
You let him do all of this in the name of the four-year
"strategy".
And the strategy is what?
The strategy is when you get to the World Cup your captain, and one of the undisputed top five players in the world, will play 225 out of a possible 400 minutes of rugby while Chris Masoe, a fringe selection at best, will play 252 minutes.
Your strategy is that your only in-form winger, Doug Howlett, will play just five minutes over three hours of rugby, while Sitiveni Sivivatu, whose form deteriorated rapidly as the tournament wore on, will top the minute count at this World Cup with 301.
There are injuries that coach Graham Henry can't legislate for.
Dan Carter would have played at least 50 minutes more if he didn't have to withdraw against Romania.
Mils Muliaina would have most likely played at least another 80 minutes if he hadn't blown a fetlock, but other decisions are impossible to defend.
Keven Mealamu, who might have been so important in the relentless pick-and-go tactic in the final half hour against France, had to withdraw with a hamstring injury.
After three of the All Blacks' pool games, Henry lambasted the media for spreading anxiety through New Zealand, insisting that the selectors had a strategy.
He said it eight times, no less. The strategy was to make all 30 players feel as if they were valued contributors to the All Blacks cause.
New Zealand's one successful World Cup campaign in six attempts was by a 26-man squad, three of whom - Frano Botica, Bruce Deans and Andy Dalton - did not get a minute's action. So in France, the All Blacks had the peculiar situation where Isaia Toeava - who has never come close at international level to justifying the huge raps assistant coach Wayne Smith has on him - being one of just four All Blacks to have played in every game.
The others were halfback Brendon Leonard, lock Chris Jack and flanker Masoe.
You had a situation where your cleverest back, Aaron Mauger, did not play a single minute against worthy opposition.
One assessment would be that in trying to please everyone, in trying to ensure every player got a fair crack to put his hand up for the big selections, Henry, a man regarded as having a ruthless streak in his planning, ended up pleasing no one.
"I still stick with my view that Henry and co should have picked their best team earlier and played them," former All Black, and 1987 cup winner, John Drake said.
"Some of the guys who played the most were those who hadn't played much in the lead-up to the cup."
Drake also pointed out that, despite Henry on several occasions telling the public rotation was about to end, it didn't.
Even at the last, he chose not to play his best XV against Romania in the final pool play to give them a final shakedown before the French quarter-final.
"It didn't happen and we don't know why," Drake added.
