There are only so many former glories that All Blacks selectors can cling to

I think we’d all agree that Beauden Barrett will be in the first All Blacks test squad of the season. Just as, we’d also have to admit he probably has no business being in the team anymore.

It’s weird when you think about it.

The justifications for continuing to pick Barrett are obvious: talent, experience, leadership. The guy has been a fixture in the squad since 2012 and often justifiably so.

At various times, Barrett has been the best and most influential player in the world, wowing all and sundry with his audacity and skill.

Back in the days when I worked in daily journalism, I’d turn up to games early just to watch Barrett warm up. He was just such a great athlete, with the ball on a string, and invariably the first player out of the dressing room.

While others applied bits of tape or checked their hair in the mirror, Barrett would be chipping and regathering the ball from one end of the field to the other.

Only it’s been a long time since I set foot in a pressbox and almost as long since Barrett was the best first five-eighth in the world.

Time was when All Blacks of significance didn’t get to retire on their terms. There were no swansongs, no final cracks at the Rugby World Cup title.

You were picked for as long as you were the best player in your position, and then dumped once you were not.

Ask Wayne Shelford how that felt, or John Kirwan. 

Now’s the time to be getting as much Test rugby into Ruben Love at 10 as possible.

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4 Jul 26

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Barrett has had his go, Damian McKenzie too. They’ve been brilliant and popular players, but have also presided over an era of comparative All Black decline.

For all their flair and the quality of their individual highlight reels, test teams have tamed them. There’s no disgrace in that.

But this idea that we keep picking them and picking them – and crossing our fingers that this time it’ll work –  is insanity. A different coach, tweaks in the supporting cast, none have altered the fact that Barrett and McKenzie have been found wanting when New Zealand really needed them.

Under Scott Robertson, the remedy appeared to be Richie Mo’unga. Never mind the fact that he’s never commanded the Test stage; the thinking was that he suddenly could, despite years of semi-retirement in Japan.

Yet we all expect Barrett and McKenzie to be among the 34-players announced in the All Blacks’ squad on Monday, with Mo’unga to join the fray at the earliest possible opportunity.

I love that Dave Rennie is now the All Blacks coach and I’m full of praise for the support staff he’s assembled around him. I believe Rennie’s All Blacks will be the best prepared since Wayne Smith was still around.

And, because we’re optimists by nature, we think that’ll suddenly change everything. That players such as Barrett and McKenzie, who’ve consistently underwhelmed when it counts, will return to being or magically become the world-beaters we’d all like them to be.

Look, McKenzie is a sensational Super Rugby player, and I’d expect him to lead the Chiefs to victory over the Hurricanes in Saturday’s final. It’s just that his dominance at that level has never extended to the Test arena.

Barrett, meanwhile, has done next to nothing for the Blues this season, or in Super Rugby in general for years now. He’s either on sabbatical in Japan or, if he is here, seemingly disinterested in the competition he’s playing in.

There are only so many former glories that selectors can cling to.

We don’t yet know if Love’s any good, and that’s kind of the problem while Barrett and McKenzie are around. The safer option is always to shield the new kid from elite opposition and rely on the tried and tested instead.

The All Blacks deal in excellence, or at least they used to. World Cup wins represent success, near misses failure.

We’ve tried Barrett and McKenzie for so long now it isn’t funny. They’ve been tried all right; it’s just that, unfortunately – by the standards we used to hold All Black teams to – they’ve failed.

But, hey, let’s roll them out for another test campaign and see if it works this time.