There's only one selection that truly matters for the All Blacks this July

I don’t need to see the All Blacks win on Saturday.

And, beyond Ruben Love at first five-eighth, I’m not hugely bothered about who plays.

I can already see that this team is building, it’s already apparent that they have a plan and it’s already clearly obvious that new coach Dave Rennie is in charge.

I’d expect the All Blacks to beat France in Christchurch. I’ll go further and say I definitely want them to win as well.

I haven’t felt that too often in recent seasons. I was quite happy to see Ian Foster and Scott Robertson’s teams lose because I wanted change and didn’t particularly like the players.

I suspect I wasn’t alone in feeling that way.

The All Blacks are relevant again. People will watch, and people will get back on the bandwagon, having kind of given up in disgust of late.

There was little to admire about the team or their performances. There was also a feeling that, when they did win, it was in spite of the environment they were working in.

I wouldn’t rush to judge the 2026 side on results. It takes a while for regime change to truly take hold.

But you can’t mistake the fact that things are already different now. Rennie and his staff are credible people, re-creating the old All Black culture of excellence and accountability.

This is a team again, rather than a slightly tarnished brand trading off the deeds of their predecessors.

I mentioned Love because he matters. Yes, he’s a precocious talent, but he needs time, smart men around him and as few backseat drivers as possible.

Love’s performances will fluctuate as he learns to play on the Test stage, and people need to be mindful of not writing him off too quickly. He’ll take wrong options or occasionally veer towards attempting the miraculous when the plain old competent would have sufficed.

He’s coming from a Hurricanes team that ran Super Rugby Pacific opponents ragged, and that’s no preparation for what he’ll face in the coming months.

I see that smarter rugby men than me are suggesting that Jordie Barrett and Billy Proctor should join Love in the inside backs. I support that idea and think back to a young Beauden Barrett in that regard.

I praised him once for his vision and, through modesty or otherwise, he deflected that. He said, yes, he had to execute, but that he could only see the right plays to make because of what Conrad Smith was telling him from centre.

Love needs others to be his eyes and ears, and he needs guys he can trust and who know his game.

If it turns out that Jordie Barrett and Proctor play in midfield, I’ll be looking to judge them on how they aid Love more than what they do themselves with ball-in-hand.

The aim is to help, not hinder.

And I say that because I felt the last potentially elite 10 we had – Richie Mo’unga – was hindered.

He invariably had Beauden Barrett at fullback and, in times of strife such as the 2019 Rugby World Cup semifinal against England, it was not Mo’unga that the team put its trust in. The ball went to Barrett, undermining Mo’unga’s status and surely affecting his confidence.

You can’t have that. There can’t be any doubt that the No.10 is running the side or that he gets the ball when he calls it.

That’s what I mean about backseat driving.

I’m assuming we won’t get that under Rennie. I’m assuming there’ll be clarity that’s been missing from the team, and I’m assuming that people will be more likely to play to their potential.

Whether that immediately translates into results, we’ll wait and see. But the point is I – and I hope many others – will be eager to see how this team goes.

I’d become accustomed to watching games out of a sense of duty or professional necessity, rather than actual interest.

Right now, I’m as invested as I have been in ages.