well it is about to start and the coverage here is of the constant but nothing to say type. How many more items of training ground runs can we watch?
it is serious though.

The time has come for the All Blacks to leave their mark on the World Cup for the good of rugby worldwide.

At last the time has come. Four years in the making and at a cost of at least $6 million, the All Blacks have another chance at rugby’s holy grail.

This is a World Cup they simply have to win for the good of the game in New Zealand. And, for the sake of the game internationally, they must win it by playing entertaining rugby.

Not since the aftermath of the 1981 Springboks tour has rugby faced such doom and gloom from the New Zealand public as it has endured this year.

People have been right to complain. The Super 14 was undermined by not having 22 All Blacks for the first half of the tournament and the Tri-Nations was below par as the players struggled to find form.

As for the national domestic championship, it lacks star power and the rugby has often been turgid.

At all levels rugby faces a crisis over its complex laws, with the muddle at the breakdown a serious blight on the game.

So much of what has happened in New Zealand rugby this year, and for the previous three, has been aimed at what will unfold in France in the next two months.

Rugby’s law problems won’t disappear if the All Blacks win the World Cup, but within New Zealand there will be a tidal wave of support for the game that will carry through to a defence, at home, in 2011.

But what if the All Blacks fail again? The coaches will be sacked – that is almost a given. But what of the planning and sacrifices that have gone into this year’s tournament?

When forced to defend his planning and policies, Graham Henry has noted that what has been tried in the past hasn’t worked.

Sticking with the status quo was standing still, he reasoned, and no one wins standing still.

So would defeat mean more needed to be done in 2011?

Would it see the All Blacks placed in even more cotton wool at the expense of other competitions?

Or would it be proof that rugby players actually need to play the game to be any good at it?

The tricky balance between game play, rest and conditioning has been a hot topic throughout the year and that will only continue at the World Cup.

The soft pool games provide ample time for the All Blacks to hit their straps in France, especially if the rotation, after the first two games, is kept to a minimum.

The All Blacks have been close to unbeatable in the past three years, winning 38 of the 43 tests played under Henry.

They have done it playing a fast, expansive and entertaining game.

THERE is a saying that defence wins World Cups and for the tournaments in 1991, 1995, 1999 and 2003 that was certainly the case.

But in 1987 New Zealand won playing an expansive game that influenced the way others played in the years that followed.

These All Blacks have the chance to do the same.

Henry has said the All Blacks’ style simply reflects the ability of the players and it is hard to argue with that. There is also some comfort in the fact that under Henry the All Blacks have shown they can dominate up front and win a tough arm wrestle.

But it’s also important that the All Blacks have the courage not to retreat into their shells as the World Cup progresses.

To lose playing defensively would be disappointing, but to win that way would be even worse.

England have been poor champions. Their limited style was never a great advertisement for rugby and they have failed in spectacular fashion to kick on from their triumph in Sydney.

Rugby needs a champion that can set the game alight.

It needs players who can get tongues wagging the way Jonah Lomu did in 1995, and John Kirwan and Michael Jones in 1987.

Those players are in this All Blacks side and it is important they leave their mark on the cup.

When the All Blacks run out at Stade Velodrome in Marseille tomorrow night they will kick off a campaign that has more riding on it than ever before.

New Zealanders are desperate for them to win after the heartache of Dublin in 1991, Johannesburg in 1995, London in 1999 and Sydney four years ago.

And rugby needs a worthy champion.

Are the 2007 All Blacks that team? We will soon find out.