The unthinkable will come to pass this Saturday at Lansdowne Road when the All Blacks will be led out by someone other than Sean Fitzpatrick. That onerous responsibility now passes on to scrum-half Justin Marshall, while Norm Hewitt takes over at hooker, because the legendary Fitzie will be sidelined by injury for the first time in 11 years.
The 34-year-old Fitzpatrick, New Zealand's most-capped player, has been left out due to the knee cartilage injury which disrupted his domestic season with Auckland prior to the All Blacks' tour departure. Apart from being rested in the World Cup group win over Japan in 1995, Fitzpatrick has not missed one other Test of the last 90, captaining the side in the last 51 of his 91 appearances.
The All Blacks' coach John Hart was perhaps guilty of using that most ill-used word in sporting parlance, tragedy, when describing Fitzpatrick's unavailability. "In losing Sean we lose a very vital part of our team. He's a huge loss for us." He might also have added that they have lost the team's abrasive focal point, agent provocateur and an auxiliary referee.
The absence of Fitzie apart, "other than Jonah (Lomu) returning to form I guess it is the strongest side we could pick at the moment."
However, it is not without its controversial choices and the All Blacks' coach acknowledged that the primary bones of contention back home would be his preference for Andrew Mehrtens over Carlos Spencer at out-half and Andrew Blowers over Josh Kronfeld at open-side flanker.
"Carlos has had a good year at home," Hart admitted "but in the latter part of the season in our National Provincial Championship, Andrew, who was back to fitness, played really well and both had their chances in Wales and the selection panel have gone for Mehrtens in this Test but I think we are very fortunate to have two world-class first five-eighths."
Nevertheless, Spencer must be the only out-half in the history of the game who could help steer the All Blacks to a unblemished Tri-Nations campaign - scoring 147 points in his debut season over seven unbeaten Tests including five tries - and then get dropped for his troubles. Mehrtens, equally prodigious though he is, did play well generally against Llanelli though his place-kicking (which was taken off him) and line-kicking (his first three were blocked) were below his customary standards.
Likewise, probably no other country in the world would drop the brilliant Kronfeld, peerless at getting tough when the going gets dirty, hoovering up balls on the ground, shoring up the fringe defence and providing the link. Blowers has had very few games for Auckland this season though he is an outstanding talent.
"Well that's a bit of a form issue. Josh had a severe injury about six weeks ago. He only had the one game last Saturday and I think at the moment is probably a little bit rusty, so he needs another game," commented Hart on the team's arrival at Dublin Airport.
Judging by the accolades being readily heaped on these mighty All Blacks and the chances of a first Irish win in 14 meetings - Keith Wood placing the odds at "one in 20" - it could be considered that Ireland are attempting to kill them with kindness.
"I don't think we are going to get lulled into any false sense of security by statements from anybody," said the smiling Hart. "This is a Test match. We expect the Irish to play exceedingly well. This is our first away Test and we'll be looking to play well but we certainly won't underestimate the opposition."
Nevertheless, the objects most likely to submerge them on this tour are bouquets and accolades rather than opposition points. His counterpart, Brian Ashton, is but one of many to describe them as the best All Blacks ever.
"Some of the comments are really nice, but they mean nothing when you get beaten," Hart retorted, even though they have lost only one match out of 16 in the last two seasons, and that the dead fourth rubber in their historic series win in South Africa.
With a record like that, these Blacks are in danger of becoming victims of their own successes, with anything less than nine tour wins deemed as failure. "Well, I'm sure there is some expectation of that at home," agreed Hart. "But the realism is that we're playing nine matches at the end of a long hard season and I've always been realistic.
"If we play well and get beaten, we must expect that. And we are going to get beaten. I think the top sides in world rugby will beat each other consistently over the next two years."
Admitting his knowledge of the Irish team was limited to last summer's Development tourists (four) and the Lions up front (another four), Hart said: "Obviously Brian Ashton is rebuilding the team and they want to start off well, so we expect everything. Every match that the All Blacks play is tough because the opposition have a lot of motivation."
New Zealand: C Cullen (Manawatu); J Wilson (Otago), F Bunce (North Harbour), A Ieremia (Wellington), G Osborne (North Harbour); A Mehrtens (Canterbury), J Marshall (Canterbury) capt; C Dowd (Auckland), N Hewitt (Southland), O Brown (Auckland), I Jones (North Harbour), R Brooke (Auckland), T Randell (Otago), A Blowers (Auckland), Z Brooke (Auckland). Replacements: S McLeod (Waikato), J Preston (Wellington), J Kronfeld (Otago), C Riechelmann (Auckland), M Allen (Manawatu), A Oliver (Otago).
