Aisle be Back: All Blacks v France

• By Kevin McCarthy 

The mental state of the nation regarding the All Blacks often resembles the patient who can’t quite nail their medication dose. Too little, and the world’s a terrible place, too much, and the world’s your oyster.

Right now we’re probably in that latter phase. Which is odd after a tightly-fought victory over Ireland, which no-one would regard as a spectacle worthy of the recent back story of these two sides.

But there’s no denying the lift in national mood – and a growing realisation that yes, Razor Robertson may just be building something worth paying attention to. The highest compliment would be to say that it felt like a proper All Black win, most parts working at a high level of efficiency, and the pressure in the end proving too much for the opposition.

The danger after that is that people may assume the team will replicate this against France. This is no given – and the All Blacks recent record in France is spotty at best.

The French of course had their own mental crisis after the world cup as the hosts were disposed of by the Boks. They haven’t seemed quite right since, but what better team to welcome than this – the one scalp the French covet above all.

Ireland however are going through their own yips. It was largely unrecognisable as the team of the past couple of seasons. Confidence in the team by fans was well deserved, but over-confidence was not, especially given they had lost their talisman at first-five.

The Irish of course love a party, but even better is a wake. They’ll be back.

And rounding out our patient list. What about them Aussies. An at-the-death win against the English at Twickenham.  New superstar unearthed, and  signs that Joe Schmidt may be slowly doing what a string of predecessors have failed to do and build a worthy house from limited materials.  Now can they back it up.

The English are in a fug, which is the best state of mind when facing the Boks. Sometimes you feel like they enjoy paralysis by analysis. The rest of the world can see Marcus Smith is class, but the English continue to prevaricate.

Regardless of all that, here in Hurricanes land you’d have to be pleased with Peter Lakai being on the bench and quite how the All Blacks will reconfigure when he does come on – meaning whether he goes 7 or 8.

The other excitement will be to see Cam Roigard starting –  no pressure, against the world’s best player.

What a relief at this stage to not have the All Blacks talking about having not much left in the tank at the end of the year.

Instead, they seem motivated and raring to pull off the trifecta, something few would have given them a shot at a month ago.

The game kicks off on Sunday morning at 9.10am (NZT).

All Blacks match-day 23 (caps in brackets) 

1.    Tamaiti Williams (17)
2.    Codie Taylor (93)
3.    Tyrel Lomax (42)
4.    Scott Barrett (78) (Captain)
5.    Tupou Vaa’i (36)
6.    Samipeni Finau (7)
7.    Ardie Savea (92) (Vice-Captain)
8.  Wallace Sititi (8)
9.    Cam Roigard (8)
10.  Beauden Barrett (132)
11.  Caleb Clarke (27)
12.  Jordie Barrett (67) (Vice-Captain)
13.  Rieko Ioane (79)
14.  Sevu Reece (31)
15.  Will Jordan (39)

16.  Asafo Aumua (18)
17. Ofa Tu’ungafasi (66)
18. Pasilio Tosi (6)
19. Patrick Tuipulotu (49)
20. Peter Lakai (1)
21.  Cortez Ratima (10)
22. Anton Lienert-Brown (82)
23.  Damian McKenzie (60)

Unavailable due to injury: Sam Cane (concussion), Mark Tele’a (hand), Sam Darry (knee), Ethan Blackadder (calf), Luke Jacobson (fractured thumb) and Dalton Papali’i (upper hamstring)