The Super Rugby champions Hurricanes have been rewarded in the All Blacks team named to play Australia in the Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup opener on Saturday.
Beauden Barrett has rightly been named the starting fly-half. What more could he do? He's starred in winning a Super Rugby Championship, he's in the best form of his life, and he signed off last year in the Rugby World Cup with a fantastic try -- just one of several quality tries he has scored in his career. He's just been sublime.
Aaron Cruden has been Cruden. He's safe but there's just that much more x-factor about Barrett. Cruden's 25 and he was the incumbent after he started the third Test against Wales, and it's tough on him to be named on the bench; but it was going a tougher call not to select Barrett.
That's the cut-throat environment we're in, and it comes down to that fine line about who is that little bit better; and form is an important part of that.
The choice at flanker was another tough call, especially with Sam Cane having suffered concussion issues, but I trust the judgement of medical staff. They know better than anyone that concussion is a medical issue in the spotlight and the eyes of the nation, and the world will analyse everything that is being done.
There were other interesting selections, especially in the midfield now that Sonny Bill Williams is out for the year. They have stuck with Ryan Crotty and Malakai Fekitoa, but you can't say those positions were in any way locked down. It was interesting that Anton Lienert-Brown had been brought in, and Seta Tamanivalu will have been made aware that it is all about keeping performing and staying in that environment.
The All Blacks have struggled to be consistent winners in Sydney over the past few years. In fact, it is probably the world venue where it is hardest for them to win now. And that's because Sydney is the home of Australian rugby; whichever ground they use in Sydney, it's their Eden Park. It's always a tough place to go, and Australia at home has always been hard.
So it will be a good way to kick off what is looking like an exciting Rugby Championship.
In some ways, there are other things hanging on the game: It is going to be a test of Australia's policy vs. New Zealand's regarding the selection of players from overseas.
It is tough for players when they are coming back from overseas contracts for periodic Test duty. It's a hard ask. They're coming from different environments. When you go overseas and play, you immerse yourself in that team's environment and you get used to what that team needs and what their requirements are.
Southern hemisphere rugby is a different style, and to go back to what you were probably raised playing is not easy. And I imagine it is a lot harder for backs than it is for forwards. The game is faster down here and what can be seen as form in the northern hemisphere is one heartbeat or a hair's breadth off the sort of reaction times in New Zealand, Australian or South African sides.
In that regard, I think New Zealand has got the policy right; it works for us and it keeps us strong. If we are going to have a global season that is one of the compromises we will have to look at, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.
The scrum is an area that will be interesting in Sydney. The Australian sides looked to have improved in Super Rugby, but I don't think the scrum is as important now as it had been previously; you can still get a penalty when you're getting pushed backwards at scrum time.
The scrum has become a liability about who is going to be penalised, and that's a blight on our game. When you're supposed to have a re-start you have no idea what the outcome is going to be. You could be twice as dominant as your opposition but it doesn't always go your way.
I hope there are reviews, test cases or people analysing how to improve the scrum, and coming up with different ideas, but it just seems that for the past 15 years we haven't got it right.
I noted that former England coach Stuart Lancaster was out at Pukekohe for the All Blacks' warm-up run against Counties Manukau and Northland last Friday. I think it is great that a coach like him, who went through what he did at the Rugby World Cup last year, is still prepared to learn.
Fair play to him. He's come to the right country to learn, and you never, ever, stop learning when you're coaching. It's like the game; it's always evolving and you've just got to try to keep bettering yourself. You ask if the Rugby World Cup in 2015 will make Stuart Lancaster a better coach, and you have to say, absolutely.