Opinion - It is slowly starting to dawn on the team, the media and the public just how long this year's All Black odyssey is.
All Black Ardie Savea. Photo: Photosport
We're now five tests into the 'away' phase of 2021 and it's not even at the halfway point yet, however with last weekend's victory over the Springboks, it does feel as though a significant marker has been reached.
Still, the fact remains that this is the longest time a non-World Cup All Black side will be away since the 1978 tour of the UK - which becomes even longer if you factor in their managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) stay when they return in late November.
For context, though, neither of those are even half as long as the 1924-25 Invincibles tour, which also included months-long boat journeys at either end.
This is why the very much self-imposed talk of this weekend's game against the Springboks being the culmination of a 'Grand Slam' at least has a very tenuous link to the famous 1978 side, who beat Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland over the course of six weeks.
But that's where the similarities end, with the All Blacks of today beating the Wallabies at Eden Park before setting off to Australia to finish them off, take two very simple wins over the Pumas and now face the Springboks.
There is something rather odd about that seemingly sacred achievement being abruptly thrown at a team that still has another five tests across two continents to play this season, but at least it gives them a form of motivation for what is a rather odd second test against the old foe this Saturday night.
Gone is the hype around it being a milestone game like the 100th test was last weekend, but definitely still hanging around like a very bad smell is the discourse over the way the Springboks play rugby these days. The narrative has been distilled down to such a binary state that even mentioning it on social media is inviting some sort of backlash, from South Africans who take it as a personal attack on their heritage, to critics that see it as the death of the game as we know it. Neither is true, but trying to tell anyone that seems to be an exasperatingly endless endeavour.
The truth though is that the Springboks may need to remember the saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
While last weekend was all about history, at least the history that NZ Rugby wanted us to remember anyway, this 101st meeting between the All Blacks and the Springboks now just seems like a means to an end. The end of the Rugby Championship that is, which is why Ian Foster admitted that they'd attached the Grand Slam label on the fixture as a way of giving extra motivation.
It does seem a little counterproductive to the All Blacks' usual way of doing things, in the future any talk of a Grand Slam will no doubt be met with the same antipathy that any sort of feat other than the upcoming fixture as it always has. One game at a time, that's how they operate, which has worked fine even if it means things get a little dull.
Nevertheless, a win will make it an even 10 in a row for Foster and his All Black side, who look a million miles away from the scratchy start to his tenure last year. Once again he's made changes, however, the pack still remains the same as the one named last weekend, with Luke Jacobson back after a possible visit from Suzie The Waitress caused him to get scratched at the last minute.
But really, we're at a point now where the constant rotation doesn't even seem to matter.
