Rumours travel faster than the speed of light, and particularly when it comes to Wales team announcements.
At one stage on Wednesday evening a mooted team doing the rounds featured so many players ruled out by injuries that Wayne Pivac would not have had any backs to put on the bench to face the All Blacks.
A cue for Stephen Jones to lace up his boots once again, perhaps? Not so.
Read more: Wales name team to face All Blacks as young winger Rio Dyer handed shock debut
When the official side for Saturday’s game in Cardiff did actually drop via email, there were indeed a full complement of backline replacements.
Welsh hopes hadn’t imploded before kick-off. Pivac has largely been able to name the players he wanted.
Here are the main headlines from his selection. Are these the men to deliver history, with a first Wales win over New Zealand since 1953?
Dyer's debut
OK, the coach would have probably wanted to pick Josh Adams. But it wasn't to be.
The wing has a thumb injury from Cardiff’s win over the Dragons on October 16 with his club coach Dai Young revealing shortly after that the back-three man would take two to four weeks to recover. It always looked a tight schedule.
Over to Rio Dyer, then, for a Wales debut against New Zealand. There have been easier Test bows.
But the youngster has been bang on form for the Dragons, with his performance against the Ospreys recently one of the individual displays of the season so far, seeing him score two tries and make 195 metres with ball in hand. No-one else on the same weekend in the United Rugby Championship got within 90 metres of him as a carrier.
We are straying into understatement of the year territory by suggesting this weekend will be a step up, but Dyer will at least head into the game with confidence topped up after his shows of late.
The challenge for Wales will be to give him the ball in space.
North boost
Amid all the pre-game speculation, one line was constant, namely that George North would not recover in time from the injury he sustained playing for the Ospreys against the Dragons a week last Sunday.
It would have been a blow to Pivac, for North had banged in his most impressive 55 minutes of the season before his bump at Rodney Parade, with a try, more than a hundred metres made from runs and seven defenders beaten.
Every time he received the ball he looked dangerous. He looked for work, ventured off his wing and challenged opponents before more often than not leaving them clutching handfuls of thin air. Wayne Pivac would have been delighted.
Wales have named him at outside centre and will look to him to be equally assertive. He has done it before against the All Blacks, notably in the first Test in 2016 when he made six clean breaks from out wide in opposition to Julian Savea.
No-one is banking on a repeat this weekend, but when North touches the ball many times, Wales tend to give a good account of themselves as a team. .
Tipuric and Reffell team up
The captain was always going to start — of course he was. The question is what number he would have on his back.
It turns out it will be a six. But Justin Tipuric has played there a number of times before for the Ospreys and acquitted himself well. Possibly, he would acquit himself well while wearing an overcoat and playing at tight-head prop — he is that good a rugby player.
Operating at six, he will look to bring his chop tackling game to the fore, to allow Tommy Reffell the chance to win turnovers, while he will also have a role in supporting the likes of Adam Beard and Will Rowlands in trying to stop the All Blacks' lineout drive.
Wales will also look to their skipper to carry, while New Zealand will want to play the game at speed and the hosts will feel they have a back-row to cope.
It is hard to argue Reffell doesn’t deserve his selection, well though Jac Morgan has been playing at regional level.
Reffell has also been in stellar form, with his effort for Leicester against Harlequins recently meriting a 10/10 in his local paper’s player ratings. There were two tries and multiple turnovers, but the incident that perhaps said most about Reffell came in the closing minutes, with his club holding an unassailable lead. The Welshman put in a cover-tackle on home wing Cadan Murley as he burst through. There were just two minutes left on the clock and Reffell could have been forgiven for feeling his day’s work was done. But he is a player who plays to the final whistle.
Pivac was also hugely impressed with the youngster’s efforts in South Africa in the summer. Can the duo combine together?
Australia famously picked two opensides in the same back row in Michael Hooper and David Pocock, with the celebrated pair playing the house down on a number of occasions.
Pivac will hope his call will prove a success as well.
The Sheriff returns
Why wouldn’t Ken Owens come back? He boasts the priceless commodity of experience but he has also made an impact on his return at regional level.
The hooking spots will be fiercely contested for the Six Nations and all the way through to the World Cup.
But Owens is back in pole position. It would be a surprise if he didn’t repay Pivac’s faith in him.
Look who’s back at 15
Amid everything else, it might be easy to pass over Leigh Halfpenny’s recall at full-back.
It will be his first Test since mangling a knee while playing for Wales against Canada a year last summer. At the time of the injury, there seemed a distinct possibility the much-decorated Halfpenny might be lost to the Test scene for good — or even have to call time on his playing days, so bad was the bump.
But he never viewed it like that.
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Instead, the player Warren Gatland rated as the most professional he coached during his time with Wales stayed positive and did everything by the book as he embarked on his long-haul recovery.
When he returned for the Scarlets his ability to read play was still as impressive, along with his goal-kicking and courage under the high ball.
A tight hamstring would have concerned the selectors, with no other specialist No. 15 in the squad. But Halfpenny has made it onto the starting grid.
The selectors will be pleased to see two old hands such as he and Owens back.
Change at nine
Most would have seen this one coming. Keiran Hardy started all three Tests in the summer and was widely talked up for his efforts.
But Tomos Williams has been sharp and inventive for Cardiff this season while Hardy hasn’t been at his best in a Scarlets side who have been finding the going tough.
Form has held sway.
Faletau comes through
Maybe the biggest relief of the lot for the Welsh coaches is Taulupe Faletau's fitness. The great No. 8 has been carrying an injury.
Without him, Wales would have had to go with a non-specialist at No. 8. It can be done, but it would have made things immeasurably tougher.
With Faletau, Wales have a player who'd be there or thereabouts for selection if a World XV were playing Mars tomorrow.
The boost to Pivac's side is incalculable.
Let's hope this is the moment those decades of hurt versus New Zealand finally come to an end.
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