"Aussie and New Zealand have an awesome rivalry in any sport really so it'll be one hell of a game in our last game.
And Spain and France, they've got their passion and that flare and they really like to throw the ball around and take risks, chip kick and throw long passes so we're going to have to be on our toes in our defence and it's always interesting playing them, they play a different style to what we're used to but if we can start the same way we started in Vegas when we get our hands on the ball I think we can go extremely well this weekend," Mikkelson says.
Earlier this week backs Andrew Knewstubb and Ngarohi McGarvey-Black joined the team in Vancouver and Mikkelson says both are excited to be back with the squad.
"Andrew's our ... top point scorer so it's awesome to have him back from the ankle injury and he'll be key for us this weekend, and Nige [McGarvey-Black], you know hasn't played since South Africa and is itching to get out there.
"[He's] probably one of our quickest players with some really good footwork so we'll be looking forward to them, I suppose elevating our play this weekend, and two guys who attack extremely well and we'll be looking forward to giving them some ball on the weekend."
Destination Sevens: Last year, Fiji Rugby took home the trophy at the #Canada7s in Vancouver. Who’ve you got to win it this time round?
Posted by World Rugby Sevens on Tuesday, 5 March 2019
The All Blacks do have a clear focus of their strengths and weaknesses, based on last weekend's results.
"We've reviewed our tour from Vegas and, you know pretty disappointed losing I suppose in the last seconds to the US but we started the game well, we were up 12-nil and I suppose we gave them a couple of chances to come back.
"They're a very good team and you just can't do that, so we're working really hard in our defence this week and hopefully we can go a couple better than we did in Vegas," Mikkelson said.
"A lot of good teams didn't even make the semifinals last week, Fiji didn't, South Africa didn't, England didn't, so there'll be a lot of good teams looking to hit back."
Mikkelson says their attack was strong in Las Vegas, acknowledging what let them down was their back-to-back penalties and allowing a quality side to take control of the ball.
"We just got to be more smart when we get hold of the ball, we've just got to hold on to it."
"This weekend we'll just going to focus on our defence, we like the way we attacked in Vegas on a small field you know it's tough conditions and it was pretty windy over there so we're just going to focus on doing our role over here [in Canada]."
Leaving those windy conditions behind, teams will have a much more weather-controlled environment at the Vancouver Sevens, held at the indoor BC Place Stadium.
Vancouver Sevens day one draw (NZT):
New Zealand v France: Sunday, 7.14am.
New Zealand v Spain: Sunday, 10.43am.
New Zealand v Australia: Sunday, 2.15pm.
Men's World Sevens Series schedule:
Dubai Sevens, November 30-December 1: 1st.
Cape Town Sevens, December 8-9: 4th.
Hamilton Sevens: January 26-27: 3rd.
Sydney Sevens: February 2-3: 1st.
Las Vegas Sevens, March 1-3: 3rd.
Vancouver Sevens: March 9-10.
Hong Kong Sevens: April 5-7.
Singapore Sevens: April 13-14.
London Sevens: May 25-26.
Paris Sevens: June 1-2.
