All Blacks’ selection strategy makes total sense

Seen through English eyes, the All Blacks are giving away test caps this weekend with a casual disregard for the integrity of international rugby. Ask the All Blacks coaches, and they say they are building their next team, developing a new generation of players, many or most of whom will be heavily involved post-2019.

One view makes good headlines, the other makes good sense, and New Zealanders should be thankful they have an All Blacks coach whose skin is thick enough and conviction in his own judgement strong enough to pursue a strategy that is most definitely the right one, even if there are screaming voices of dissent.

If you are unsure whether Steve Hansen has made the right selection

What’s devaluing test rugby is the insanity of having so much of it combined with ever-expanding club programmes. England are the most obvious victims.

for the test against Japan, then think about this.

If there is an accusation to be thrown this weekend about devaluing tests, then it could be hurled at England, who have picked a pack to play against South Africa that has only 60 caps when it doesn’t include the 92 brought by Dylan Hartley. England’s back row has a combined total of 10 caps, which is less than the 13 the All Blacks will be fielding in Tokyo.

England coach Eddie Jones hasn’t done this by choice, but by necessity because so many of the players he wanted to pick are smashed up and limping around. Jones has been forced to pick an England team to play a must-win tier one test at home with just 160 test caps in the pack.

The All Blacks, supposedly devaluing the jersey, have picked a pack that has 113 test caps to play a tier two team.

What’s devaluing test rugby is the insanity of having so much of it combined with ever-expanding club programmes.

England are the most obvious victims and that will become more apparent next week when they play the All Blacks in a fixture that has been feverishly anticipated for two years.

When the two sides meet, England will most likely have a starting pack with about 160 tests caps combined.

The All Blacks will have a starting pack with about 520 caps and with the benefit of having had a week off.

Whose position would All Blacks fans rather be . . . England’s or New Zealand’s?

And that’s why Hansen is selecting the way he is — not to devalue the All Blacks jersey but to preserve and enhance its proud legacy.

He would be shot if he had no choice but to select the team he has for Japan against England because of injuries forced as a result of overplaying the best players.

What he’s doing is strategically avoiding a catastrophe and taking a calculated risk that the All Blacks’ second tier of talent will be good enough to beat Japan and in the process, take a step towards readying themselves to graduate to the top tier.

And that’s the other point worth making — the All Blacks starting team in Tokyo is not full of players we will never see again at this level.

Two of the back three are in the original 32-man ‘proper’ squad and Nehe Milner-Skudder is a genius hoping to recover his best form.

There’s a reasonable chance Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty will both move on after the World Cup and Ngani Laumape and Matt Proctor are likely to become All Black regulars.

Richie Mo’unga doesn’t need any explanation as to how good he is, while Luke Whitelock, Vaea Fifita, Jackson Hemopo and Patrick Tuipulotu are all in the frame to go to the World Cup.

Dane Coles is world class, Ofa Tuungafasi will go to the World Cup as the man who can cover both sides and Angus Ta’avao is the third-ranked tighthead in the country and only ever an injury away from a full call-up.

The bench, where six of the new caps sit, is where the All Blacks have been forced to dig deeper into their talent pool than normal but that was the cost of sending the top team to London early.

They didn’t want to have to ask a handful of frontliners to stay in Japan to man the bench — hence the army of extra players brought over.

Ultimately the question about devaluing the jersey can’t be properly answered for a few weeks until we see results and performances.

But if the All Blacks win their next three tests and play well in the process, will those who have coined the term ‘confetti caps’ stick to that belief or will they see Hansen’s selections as the smart strategic play it is?