Almost two weeks ago, when they departed for Argentina, the All Blacks had Ryan Crotty's safe abilities pencilled in to start at second five-eighth this weekend.
At that point they didn't envision Malakai Fekitoa well surpassing expectations to create such a selection headache. They thought he would take much longer to adapt to the switch from centre; much longer to grasp the running lines and distribution requirements.
Crotty has played most of career at second-five and with Ma'a Nonu out for the year with a broken forearm, his experience and familiarity would prove valuable. That was the theory.
Instead, it now seems likely Fekitoa will be rewarded with retention of the No.12 role inside Conrad Smith. If so, he confronts the greatest test of his budding career - up against Boks captain Jean de Villiers at Ellis Park - but Fekitoa will take confidence from his assured display against the Pumas last week and back himself to repeat those efforts.
"He's done everything he needed to do," All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster said yesterday. "He came in and perhaps the skill set that we want out of a 12 wasn't natural to him. He ticked a whole lot of boxes. We were delighted with him. He put a lot of effort into it and has certainly put his hand up.
"Ryan has come over and fresh off a pretty good 40 minutes at Eden Park against Australia so we've got some nice choices."
As it has the past two years, the make-up of the All Blacks' bench will take on great importance against the Boks. Playing on the high veldt at altitude, lungs burn and lactic acid makes legs heavy. Crotty's calm head could still be influential late in the contest - if selected on the bench - when the test breaks up and composure will be vital, particularly on defence where the Cantabrian has proven his worth.
The Boks are starting to catch on to the value of tactical substitutions - last week they ran in three tries in the final seven minutes to crush the Wallabies at the death. Schalk Burger, Bakkies Botha, JP Pietersen and nippy halfback Cobus Reinach were just a few that had a major impact in closing out their victory in Cape Town.
"What it signalled is they've probably got a stronger squad of 23 now," Foster observed. "They seem to have developed a strategy of using the 23 a little bit more. One of our strengths the last few years has been using our 23. It's been our ability to bring people on and keep the tempo going upwards. They've got a strong bench now. They've got players who can come on and make a difference. It's a challenge for all 23 players from both sides this week."
Foster was also confident the All Blacks had more to give. He pointed out after the draw against the Wallabies in Sydney there were widespread suggestions that they had plateaued. That result - treated as a loss internally - has been frequently mentioned as serving this side with a healthy wake-up call.
"There's still significant areas of our game we feel a little bit off at times," he said. "The more we talk about it and the more we develop the skills of this current playing group, the more we get excited about what we can do. We hope to keep on climbing."
