KEY POINTS:
The All Blacks have no choice: they must play their strongest XV against Romania this weekend.
After yesterday's sloppy display against Scotland B, coach Graham Henry must take a big step forward. The time for experimenting and offering players every chance to prove themselves and contest selection for
the key games is up.
If Henry and his fellow selectors are still pottering about picking players who clearly are not among the contenders for the quarter-finals onwards against Romania, that will be a mistake.
It doesn't make sense if they are saying after another seven days off and living in the lap of luxury they need a further break this week.
It will be a week, and a game, lost. As it stands, if the heavy mob have their feet up in Toulouse this weekend, they will be going into a quarter-final, perhaps against France, in Cardiff after a fortnight off.
That's courting disaster and, in my book, France in the quarter-finals is a giant banana skin lying just round the corner.
The French would rather be playing on home soil - after all, it is their World Cup - and they've got themselves into this jam with their poor start against Argentina. But they will be up for a massive challenge, and showed enough against Ireland on Saturday to suggest they're on the move.
I fear the All Blacks will arrive in Cardiff underdone - and now they have been given a couple of days off for R and R in the south of France with wives and partners.
What's that all about? Although they've emphatically denied it, it does sound a bit 1999 all over again, when the All Blacks took off for a break to France mid-cup and never recovered.
Does this mean they need freshening up after a few weeks together? Sorry, that's not reality. In my book it's stupid and they are setting themselves up for a fall.
The less said about yesterday's win over the Scots the better.
The All Blacks did not really assert themselves, got caught up in trying to grind the Scots down and although it's hard to quibble with a 40-0 scoreline, the quality of the performance left much to be desired.
Scotland were a disgrace, and I lay the blame squarely on coach Frank Hadden.
He's missed a glorious chance. Why not put his top team out and give them a real blowout ahead of their must-win match against Italy? They have seven days to recover.
I believe Hadden could have put some real heat on the All Blacks with his best XV. The Scottish public have been badly let down.
And what would Henry have learned out of the match? Not much, other than perhaps eliminating a few players from his plans for the next month.
He'll certainly have a big question mark over Neemia Tialata, who didn't really look comfortable replacing Carl Hayman at tighthead. Greg Somerville should now step up a place in the pecking order.
At least the Cup now returns to where it should always have been. The games in Wales and Scotland, bought and paid for to ensure France got the hosting rights, have been a letdown.
France has put on a pretty good tournament so far, bumper crowds, fine weather, terrific spectacle.
It didn't need sojourns to Scotland and Wales. Just like the All Blacks can't possibly need a sojourn for the next few days.
My mind goes back to the 1987 Cup when Sir Brian Lochore was our coach. We were billeted on farms in the Wairarapa at one point. It was all down-to-earth stuff, certainly not swanning round the Riviera.
"BJ" is the fourth selector now and in France. I wonder what he's been making of all this.
* John Drake is a former World Cup-winning All Black
