Blah. Blah. Blah.
Like many people, I've picked the odd hole in the All Blacks in recent years. I do think the scrum is vulnerable, for example.
But goodness me, let's stand back and appreciate what this GREAT All Black team will achieve if it avoids a monumental upset against Ireland on Monday morning.
A perfect season, in a crammed calendar year, is a remarkable effort.
Exclusive club
One of the great disappointments of the modern era in professional sport is that one-cap wonders are becoming quite rare.
You know the type, especially in rugby and cricket. The bolter, the outsider, the ring-in, the injury replacement, the bloke in the right place at the wrong time, or the wrong place at the right time.
He gets whistled in, he plays one game and, for whatever reason, he disappears.
Where would the history of our two biggest sports be without the likes of Graham Sims, Norm Berryman and Ben Atiga, or Hamish Bennett, Stu Gillespie, Greg Loveridge and Oamaru's beloved David Sewell?
Sadly, the modern sporting calendar is so bulging these days that the one-cap wonders are a dying breed.
Plus, in rugby, there are now eight reserves at the top level. Most get a run every week, and you only need to step on to the field to get a cap. Someone like Tawera Kerr-Barlow might have been a one-capper in the past but can now rack up 15-20 in no time.
Before this season, the most recent members of the one-cap All Black club were Mike Delany, Lelia Masaga and George Whitelock. Cricket's one-cap test club welcomed a new member this year in Colin Munro, who has about as much chance of playing another test as Sewell (sorry, mate).
Future is All White
I have been playing the Fifa video game series for about 17 years. Ding! Give the man a medal.
This is relevant (bear with me) because, in that time, the game has expanded its roster of teams/players immensely. Where once you could play only as a handful of top clubs and nations, now you can choose from dozens and dozens of leagues.
You can - and I do, regularly - play as the Wellington Phoenix in the A-League, or as the All Whites against any of the top national sides.
I bring this up because, as I write, I am three seasons into a career as manager of both the Nix and the All Whites.
In the latest international window, I played a friendly against Korea. The All Whites team had three players - Marco Rojas (88, or the same as German star Bastian Schweinsteiger), Winston Reid (77) and Tommy Smith (74) - whose ratings had climbed dramatically.
Fine, it's just a game. But it's a game that pours massive resources into accurate rosters. It thinks our best young New Zealand players will improve, and so do I.
It's football. It's a truly global game. We will never regularly be in the top 50, or even the top 75.
But I believe we have talent, and I believe we can play better football.
By any . . .
An issue bubbling away in American sport is the growing pressure on the Washington Redskins football team to change its name.
This is for obvious reasons.
''Redskins'' was the white man's term for Native Americans. It's a bit like a New Zealand team being called . . . aaaand let's not go there.
The debate is getting heated in the big country. Some heavyweights are calling for the Redskins to get into the 21st century and find a new name, but the organisation and its passionate fans do not want to discard the team's name lightly.
. . . other name
Would you say any New Zealand sports team's nickname is offensive?
Most of our nicknames don't have a lot of history, of course. Most are fairly bland exercises in marketing rather than a reflection of history.
Rugby has the Blues, and cricket has the Aces and Firebirds (whatever they are). But the real culprit is netball, which foisted the Magic, the Pulse, the Steel and the Tactix (ugh) upon its fans.
The Highlanders (Scottish), the Crusaders (English), the Hurricanes (windy) and the Chiefs (Maori) all have some relevance to their respective rugby areas, and the Nuggets, the Hawks and the Pistons all share a name with basketball cousins in the United States.
Many New Zealand teams have grabbed nicknames from different sports. In basketball, for example, the Saints (NFL), the Jets (NFL), the Giants (NFL and baseball) and the Sharks (NHL) all poached names from other codes.
Bowls names
Speaking of names, did you see any of the Australian Premier League bowls tournament this week?The twenty20-isation of bowls includes television coverage, coloured clothing, an abbreviated format and, you guessed it, nicknames for the state-based teams.
There is the Adelaide Endurance (save me), the Brisbane Gold, the Perth Suns, the Sydney Lions and our own New Zealand Blackjacks.
The sixth team is the Melbourne Roys, which initially got me every excited. Why the Roys? Why not the Melbourne Dougs, or the Melbourne Steves? But apparently the name comes from the FitzROY bowls club.
Jimmy's coffee
Now, former Highlanders halfback Jimmy Cowan has a pretty nifty sense of humour, but we'll accept this is kosher for now.
Cowan tweeted a photo of himself this week holding up a certificate from a barista training course.
He wrote: ''Life after rugby, gruelling 2 hrs of theory, thank god for my uni days''.
The brain game
I have never considered chess a sport. Still don't. An activity with a glorious history, and structure, and absorbing possibilities, sure. But not a sport. Sorry, Tony.
That said, it has been fascinating to watch and (mainly) read about the world championship clash going on right now between Indian master Viswanathan Anand and square-jawed 22-year-old Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen.
There was a fine column in the Guardian by a bloke called Stephen Moss, who argued chess was ''the greatest game ever developed'' and he couldn't understand why it had slipped out of the mainstream media.
Various websites have coverage of the world championship, if you have a few hours to spare.
Name of the week
Sydney FC is set to unveil its new striker against the Wellington Phoenix tonight.
His name? Ranko Despotovic.
Birthday of the week
Merv Hughes is 52 today.
And you have immediately thought of his moustache.
