I see the logic in what All Blacks coach Scott Robertson is trying to do. Depth helps. Just ask Rassie Erasmus.

South Africa’s ability to almost replace whole forward packs from half to half, or even teams from week to week, is enviable.

We also remember how many first-choice All Blacks fell over during the 2011 Rugby World Cup campaign and the mad scramble that caused.

But, as I look at the way Robertson is picking the All Blacks and see the number of players involved and hear of his desire to have four viable options for each position, the World Cup I think of is 2007.

We’re at the point of the four-yearly cycle where results aren’t that important. Robertson is going to take the All Blacks to that tournament, and the team is likely to win more games than it loses between now and then.

Some of us on the outside might express a bit of dissatisfaction along the way, but it’ll all be hot air. Robertson will be judged on the 2027 Rugby World Cup and nothing else.

That’s not how I’d like things to be, necessarily, but that’s how they are.

No, I’d like the All Blacks to be a select group. I’d like to see the return of incumbency and of guys owning a jersey. Rugby’s not like it was when I was a kid. Back then, you were only replaced if you were injured.

Now that it’s a true 23-man game, there is the opportunity for people to play their way into the starting XV. That’s good. Guys won’t play the 80 minutes every week, so we can all gauge whether player X deserves to potentially replace player Y.

Within that framework, though, I believe there should be a clear hierarchy and the building of combinations capable of withstanding World Cup knockout matches.

And I say that because of 2007 and New Zealand’s ignominious quarterfinal exit.

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

Average Points scored

These were the days of rest and rotation, and, my word, didn’t we all marvel at the depth in the team. You could put 108 points on Portugal with one team and then beat Romania 85-8 with another.

Unfortunately, those results said more about the opponents than the All Blacks. The team wasn’t especially convincing in these mismatches, but we figured it’d still be all right on the night.

Yes, the selectors will ensconce their best XV when it counts, and the World Cup will be won before you know it.

I’m reminded of that at the moment and feel a particular unease about who’s going to drive the team.

Towards the end of last season, I’d become increasingly comfortable with the idea that it would be Beauden Barrett. Then Sevu Reece got knocked out in the first Test of this season, and we saw what happened when Barrett had to share those duties with Damian McKenzie.

Two dominant playmakers, but only one ball, wasn’t a particularly effective mix. And now we’re poised to add Richie Mo’unga to the equation next year. Fine in theory, it’s just that it’s not hard to imagine him, Barrett and McKenzie all on the park at the same time.

That is New Zealand’s method, after all. Throw all the best players out there together, regardless of whether any of the pieces fit.

I’m on about incumbency and a hard and fast first XV, because without ownership, there’s no responsibility.

Anyone who’s played rugby knows the relationship between a hooker and his tighthead prop is critical. Then there’s the front row as a whole, the locks and the tight-five as well.

None of you can function as individuals.

Same for the loose forwards, the halfback and first-five, the midfield and the back-three. They’re all distinct units in which you cannot succeed without building relationships and combinations.

It’s one of the reasons why rugby remains one of the ultimate team games. The All Blacks aren’t looking to build a team, though. No, they’re after a squad. A travelling circus from which people come and go, and caps are thrown around like confetti.

I see what South Africa has done. And I get that, two years out from the World Cup, this is a point where Robertson can expose people to Test rugby without real consequences.

But I go back to 2007 – and the season or two that preceded it – and the idea that the team was interchangeable; that guys need rest, that positions need to be contestable, that it takes depth to win a World Cup.

It’s just that, on that fateful day against France in Cardiff – against an opponent that wasn’t going to roll over and play dead like Romania or Portugal – the All Blacks were bereft.

They had no combinations, and they had no idea of how to beat a team that was prepared to tackle. There was no Plan B, because these players hadn’t spent enough time playing together to properly suss out Plan A.

New Zealand has enough talent to win the next World Cup. My fear is that they’re determined to use too much of it.