KEY POINTS:
The All Black hierarchy have defended their continued selection roulette, disputing claims the changes will adversely affect morale, combinations and sharpness for the World Cup.
Assistant coach Wayne Smith said the juggling would continue as it reflected current form and the quality of the opposition, developed greater competition and squad depth, while staying loyal to the dominant tradition of winning.
There would be some natural frustration when players were rested, as shown by Aaron Mauger's comments this week, but players realised decisions were made for the team and World Cup welfare.
Smith did not accept selection rotation increased players' irritation levels or left them feeling compromised.
The panel was still sorting out their strongest line-ups.
The All Black staff were satisfied they could keep the players in strong shape with training camps, simulated matches and specific work in the seven-week gap from the Bledisloe Cup decider next week to the start of the World Cup against Italy in Marseille.
It had yet to be decided if some of the squad would be drip fed into the Air New Zealand Cup.
That call would be made after the final two tests against the Springboks tomorrow and Wallabies next week in Auckland.
"The record shows we are doing okay, we are doing the best we can and the way we think is right," Smith said.
"We have road-tested this for the past two years. We have gone from Tri-Nations to end-of-year tours.
"Sometimes, they have not played for six or seven weeks before that end-of-year tour. They have played bloody well in those first couple of games because we have managed to do activities that are match-like and hardening. We seem to have got the mix right so they hit the tours fizzing.
"So we have tested a lot of our weeks, campaigns, routes of travel, venues, the way we run our week, we have done a hell of a lot of work in preparing for this and we are sticking to a plan. It is tried and tested."
One school of thought believed the same side had to be chosen to rehearse and fine-tune their roles in matches while another thought it best to train that way but not give away too much in games. The All Blacks were trying to merge both theories.
"I think we have an advantage over the Northern Hemisphere teams because we can go to the World Cup match hardened. We're not going to blow that by keeping them inactive."
Smith said the target each week was to pick an All Black side with that little bit of edge, to judge players who had that extra sharpness.
Such swapping, like the seven changes tomorrow, was not adding to players' disquiet, anxiety or producing uneasy combinations.
"I would be surprised if that was the case given the strong team buy-in to that," Smith said.
"We have a strong leadership group, we are almost dual-managed, we have made few unilateral decisions. Of course, we are the leaders and have to take the information and make the decisions but I would be surprised if they felt they couldn't say that in the group and that we wouldn't get that feedback.
"Obviously, guys want to play but there is an element of disagreeing with that and committing to the good of the team."
In the future, if midfielder Luke McAlister decided to play overseas like teammate Mauger, it would offer opportunities for others like Ma'a Nonu, Anthony Tuitavake, Tamati Ellison, Steven Brett or Tane Tuipulotu.
Smith was confident the development programmes here would offer a flow of replacements.
Player departures were part of a healthy regeneration process in New Zealand rugby, helping to ensure the All Blacks stayed on top of the world rankings as it promoted enthusiasm and guarded against complacency.
He said prop Greg Somerville was making good progress in club rugby after his Achilles tendon injury but needed to be tested a great deal more yet.
The All Blacks will name their initial World Cup squad on July 22 but Smith said they could leave vacancies for someone like Somerville before the August 14 deadline for final tournament selections.
