KEY POINTS:
Role reversals. Sean Fitzpatrick was an example when he bobbed up on the wing as a change from tutoring referees or controlling the setpiece tempo of test matches, while another, former skipper Tana Umaga, could have been mistaken at times for a loose forward in his midfield exchanges.
These days, when the play moves away from the setpiece, the relevance of the number on a player's back becomes far less significant.
He has to be far more multi-skilled than the All Blacks in the great World Cup-winning side of 1987.
If a chip kick needs to be made in midfield and Tony Woodcock has the ball, he has to find his target. If a ruck needs to be cleaned out and playmaker Daniel Carter is the closest, he has to stick his shoulder into a rival body.
But when games are reviewed and analysed, the forwards still take special pleasure when they can disentangle themselves in time from some hard slog to see Joe Rokocoko or Sitiveni Sivivatu slipping across the tryline.
The gratitude is reciprocal. There are few backs who live in some sort of fantasyland that they can win matches by themselves.
Most are still smart enough to applaud their mates who work all match to find the possession to give their backs.
Concrete mixers and flash harrys - the gags still fly between the forwards and backs, while the occupational demands which were so clearly defined in the sport 30 years ago are now very blurred.
We have already seen Jerry Collins use a few nifty grubber kicks in this tournament, while Doug Howlett is as alert as anyone to the chances of a quick throw in rather than waiting for his hooker.
But when the coaches boil the game down to its simplest ingredients, the forwards still have to do their basics right, they have to lay the foundation for a game - otherwise the backs will be unable to use their speed and flair.
One of the men with the No 2 on his back, Anton Oliver, is stepping into his second sudden-death section of a World Cup this weekend after being overlooked for the last tournament in Australia.
"When they are over the white line and they have pushed it down it is great," he said.
"Since I have been playing, the All Blacks have had pretty gifted backs.
"I think it was a mistake for us in the late '90s and the early part of the new millennium that we figured our backs were so good that our forwards wouldn't have to do any work and we'll just give it to them.
"We assumed Jonah, Cully, Wilson and Tana would just score.
"And that is where I think the All Black pack, unfairly, got a reputation that our forward pack was soft or were not good enough. Our emphasis shifted too sharply to the backs because they were very good.
"Because you have to do the work up front first, as we all know."
Oliver said the current set of All Blacks backs were great, and in some cases may have too much talent. During the World Cup pool games they broke the line more often than usual because of the inferior defences.
"They got too many options, too many things to think about and as a consequence we dropped the ball too many times for our own high standards."
As a collection, the All Black backline was as talented a group as Oliver had seen or played with. Many were identified early in their careers and were getting supreme rugby training from a young age.
Mils Muliaina, Isaia Toeava, Luke McAlister - they were all examples of tremendous talent who could play in a variety of positions.
Daniel Carter was the icing on that golden stockpile.
"Yeah, when Dan plays well, like the second test against the Lions [2005] that was a mercurial display that not many people in the game, past or present, have ever seen a guy play like that. He is pretty good."
If Oliver tips his lid to the elan and execution of his backline then another World Cup survivor, Byron Kelleher, is well placed at halfback to dissect the merits of his pack.
He offers some mutual appreciation. "We have got a very good scrum," he said, "we rely heavily on getting our setpiece right because no matter what happens, if the forwards can't give us a good platform to work from, the backs are not going to be able to do their job.
"It is important our forwards are dominating in that area and are also physical and aggressive and I truly believe that we have got the best forward pack in the world for power, agility and for skills.
"Then it is a matter of having the direction and implementing that on the night." Kelleher was reluctant to highlight any in the pack with the supreme X-factor, preferring to say that a blend of workhorses and stars was the best recipe for success.
Keith Robinson was the least capped forward because of injury.
But Kelleher loved the presence he brought to the pack, the damage he could inflict in pileups, the clarity he brought to the lineouts. "He is very, very physical and very dominant at ruck time and I am sure any opposition which goes to ruck time will be aware of his presence."
