All Blacks: Adam is the first man to pick

All Black conditioning coach Nick Gill said Adam Thomson (above) is 'still mobile and still the fastest loosie in the squad'. Photo / Getty Images

If this is a selection tour, as the All Black coaches say it is, then their job this week is not going to be terribly hard. There are, injuries depending, just two positions where there is need for debate.

The only uncertainties are who partners Brad Thorn at lock and who wears No 6 - Adam Thomson or Jerome Kaino.

That's it. For all the angst and frustration there has been this season, the All Blacks have finally settled in terms of game plan and personnel. Where once there were doubts about the make-up of the top team, now it's clear who has what it takes and which combinations work.

To play France, a side that is now looking ominously good after a year of experimentation by new coach Marc Lievremont, the All Black selectors will have to decide whether the combative and confrontational approach of Jerome Kaino is a better option than the raw pace and turnover expertise of Thomson.

Kaino is being fashioned more and more into a traditional hit man - a Jerry Collins type who can punish defences with his ball carrying and put opponents down hard.

He was committed against Wales without ever carrying that same edge of volatility that Collins did - and, as an enforcer, Kaino is not one who will be taken terribly seriously by the French and their all-action captain Thierry Dusautoir.

Thomson has gelled better with Kieran Read and Richie McCaw - with this particular trio causing Australia all manner of problems in both Wellington and Tokyo. In those tests, that trio came to dominate the collision, not so much through muscle but through their collective speed that allowed them to set up in better body positions and steal the critical inches.

France were tough enough to beat South Africa in an out-and-out dog fight. The game was played around the set-piece; the French worked the rolling maul and there was some continuity and cohesion in the way they worked big forwards through the midfield.

The All Blacks will have to match the French threat in the set-piece; they will have to front in the close-counter rumble and they will have to clear bodies at the collision - all the usual boxes that have to be ticked.

Where they might have an edge is in their ability to play football nearer the touchlines and that's the reason for picking Thomson ahead of Kaino.

Remember this about the French - they can handle the All Blacks if they pick and drive. In 2007, Dusautoir made 38 tackles in the quarter-final. As a former black belt in judo, he used his knowledge of balance and body weights to make more tackles than the entire All Black team did that night.

The All Blacks need to be brutal, they need to be organised and aggressive at scrum, lineout and collision but they also need to be prepared to attack that bit wider than they have in recent tests.

In the past 12 months, Thomson has developed into the perfect modern blindside - capable of both the nasty and fancy stuff.

All Black conditioning coach Nick Gill has played a major role in that transformation.

"Last year, Adam was 102kg and he was getting beaten up a bit," says Gill. "He was very fast, highly mobile and we said that if he wanted to compete at international level, then he had to put on some weight.

"He was very reluctant because he was worried about losing speed. But he got to 110kg, he's effective at the breakdown, still mobile and still the fastest loosie in the squad."

With Thomson at six, there would always be a temptation to start Jason Eaton alongside Thorn. Eaton has the range to support the wider rucks and he's more of a ball player than Tom Donnelly.

But Donnelly has brought a level of lineout security that has to be valued. He's also a useful grunter in the scrums and puts his shoulder into the dark areas.

The French even managed to rattle Victor Matfield at times, leaving the All Blacks little choice but to start with their best aerial lock, Donnelly, and use Eaton off the bench if the game is opening up in the final half hour.

The hybrid option of Anthony Boric is maybe not the right choice for the French - it needs a grafter or a ball player.

If that is the team, then the next question is, are they good enough to beat France in the emotionally-charged Stade Velodrome of Marseilles?

There are plenty of reasons to believe they can, starting with experience.

Mils Muliaina will become the second most capped All Black in Marseilles, surpassing Justin Marshall's 81 appearances. McCaw will equal that mark.

Across the team, there is experience - the front row total almost 150 caps. Dan Carter and Jimmy Cowan have almost 100 between them and the former will start the game as the highest points scorer in All Black history, as he needed just two points at Twickenham to move ahead of Andrew Mehrtens.

In total, the likely starting team will share 605 caps between them for an average of 40 per man.

They have the players, too. In just one season, Cory Jane has become one of the better wings in the world game.

He was rested this morning partly because his workload has been heavy and also so the selectors could give Zac Guildford more experience of the big occasion - but it's Jane, on account of his form, who is expected to be named this week.

After the test against Wales, attack coach Steve Hansen was moved to say of Conrad Smith: "He'd be close to being the best centre in the world right now. He's playing exceptionally well."

Carter is the best first five in the business and his combination with Cowan is developing in each test. McCaw does what he does and Thorn, like Smith, is earning the most extraordinary plaudits.

"They're probably the two best games I've seen him play in all his years playing rugby," said McCaw of Thorn's work in the Tokyo and Cardiff tests.

"I can't really put it into words but he's definitely an inspiration to the boys. He's a real professional and he's got a real hard edge to him. He doesn't like to give anyone anything."

It's that competitive edge Thorn brings that the All Blacks need to stabilise their scrummaging - their most vulnerable point.

Neemia Tialata was surprisingly rested against England. Like Jane, it was both a desire to give him some time off and to see how a younger man with a long future - Owen Franks - handled the big occasion.

Tialata's bulk and experience will be needed in France and his combination with Andrew Hore and Tony Woodcock has to stand firm and give the French no hint of weakness.

If the All Blacks can push the ball a little wider while conceding nothing in the close contact, then they have the game plan.

It comes down to courage, desire, application, passion and ability to hold it all together on the night.

THE SELECTION PUZZLE

Five Reasons to pick Tom Donnelly ahead of Jason Eaton and Anthony Boric

1: Since Donnelly was capped in September, the lineout has been almost faultless.

2: The French have a lineout almost the equal of South Africa's and the All Blacks can't afford for this part of their game to come under the same sort of pressure it did earlier in the year.

3: Donnelly needs to be exposed to the white-hot atmosphere of a test in Marseilles to find out whether he can handle that intensity and prove he's not a journeyman elevated above his rank.

4: Neither Eaton nor Boric have played well enough to make insistent claims they should be starting ahead of Donnelly.

5: The arrival of Donnelly - coincidental or otherwise - has brought the best out of Brad Thorn.