Time to see how good Henry's men really are

We know they are technically head and shoulders above the rest of the world. We know they are faster and fitter than the other teams. We know they have more depth of talent and that if the best team in the world were to be selected after the pool matches there would be at least seven All Blacks in it.

But we knew all this a month ago. The fact that we have not seen anything to deepen or extend our understanding of what actually lies at the spiritual core of this All Black team is a problem today only for we commentators and professional forecasters.

The All Black management certainly seem to be perfectly satisfied with the pool performances.

Nevertheless I feel a little uneasy. No team can win the World Cup without a day (or more accurately a half-hour) of reckoning.

The time will surely come when the 2007 All Blacks will stand on the edge of the precipice that their 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2003 predecessors have fallen into.

There will be a time when the stomach churns, the limbs feel like water and doubt crouches in the hallway. It will be then that we will know just how great this All Black team is.

I always look for the signs of mental toughness and resilience in the little things. Such as: if a forward makes a mistake, say drops a kick-off, does he explode out of the resulting scrum looking for a ruck or an opponent to smash into; to do what ever he can to make amends.

In other words does the mistake make him angry with himself but calculated, commited, desperate to redeem himself and to do it with controlled agression or does life go on as before. After all one dropped ball is hardly likely to determine the result of the game, other people make mistakes too. Forget it, put it behind you.

The trouble is, sometime soon, next week, or the one after that or in the Final, one dropped ball, one mistake, one wrong decision is going to be the difference between world champion and also ran.

In 2003, New Zealand did not make the final because Carlos Spencer threw the wrong pass at the wrong time. In 2003 England won the World Cup because Matt Rogers mishit a clearing kick leaving it 20 metres short of a safe distance from the Australian goal line.

But none of the All Blacks pool matches have given us any new insight into how the team will react under pressure in the knockout stages.

So I am limited here to reciting what we can see and admire of the All Blacks as they have cruised through the pool matches.

What we have seen has been very good indeed. The scrum has not been remotely tested but it continues to demonstrate what really matters and that is control.

It is all very well to have a very powerful scrum, one that can, when it is set and ready, shove harder than the opposition, but what really counts today is power allied to adaptability and control. Advancing the scrum on the tighhead side when the right hand blind-side is in play, holding fast without the No. 8 pushing when he is preparing to run and holding up an opposition intent on milking penalties from a gullible referee when they know they cannot compete is more important than brute strength.

The All Blacks have all of this skill. They will need it but the scrum remains excellent and will be a key contributor to success.

The lineout is basically very good, Robinson, Jack and Williams are three of the top six or seven lineout forwards in the world and Mealamu throws as well as any hooker.

I think the realtive weakness is in tryng too hard under pressure.

It is pointless to describe again the brilliance and effectiveness of the looseforwards and of Dan Carter and of the the try-scoring ability of Rokocoko, Sivivatu, Howlett and Muliaena. Their deeds speak louder than any words. The rest of the world has no peers to compare.

I also think the most unstable area of this All Black team, the midfield, is now settled, with just one intriguing question remaining.

Mauger and Mulianea are a powerful, organised and incisive pair and they should start the big matches. McAllistair and Smith have performed well, but the intriguing option is Nick Evans.

It is hard to analyse just what it is about Nick Evans that lies behind the impact he has on the field but he is one of those rare players who make things happen around them.

I think it has something to do with him being realtively unknown to defences and having a very different attacking amoury than the predominately polynesian All Black back power.

He is very fast and running at the line he steps sometimes, but more often checks and with a sinuous change of gear is gone. He is a game breaker. How he is used will be fascinating.

In summary the All Blacks are ready. They have run up 70, 100, 40 and 80 in their pool matches. They have maintained their discipline and focus and while occasionally making more mistakes than they would wish have been clinical. They have no injuries to speak of and they are happy and relaxed off the field. They are ready.

I can't conclude a review of the pool matches and the All Blacks performance without some comment on the other teams.

Australia and South Africa have been great, Argentina a revelation and France weak when it mattered but nevertheless showing class.

Tonga and Fiji have been simply unbelieveable.

No one before this tournament started would have given them any chance of making the knock-out stages.

Fiji thoroughly deserved their win over Wales and the fact that they did it by competing consistently in the forwards, holding their discipline in defence and taking their chances says a lot about their ability to build on this result in future World Cups.

Tonga also seem to have made the break-through to a team that plays with discipline and organisation as well as polynesion passion. With players now spread all over the world playing professional rugby (and these results will help more players get contracts to play professionally) the future looks good indeed for the Pacific Islanders.

The rest of the so-called top nations, in particular the Irish and the English have been deplorable.

Wales are out but played about to their ability, which isn't a lot. Scotland likewise.

England seems to have spent the last four years as world champions figuring out just how they could so cock-up selections, coaching and team tactics so as to ensure that in 2007 they could play their worst rugby possible. It would be a joke if it wasn't so disappointing.

That the world champions should be at risk of going out in the pool stages because they were a genuine chance (which they were) of losing to Tonga, is pathetic. English rugby should be ashamed of itself.

- © Fairfax NZ News