Four of the next five tests the All Blacks will face the teams that will likely pose an authentic threat to their crown: South Africa, Australia, Ireland and England. The other test, against Japan, will provide limited information on the field, but should at least provide some useful reconnaissance information off it.
(Forget the year's final test against Italy. The progress of that country's rugby has been glacial – and it's worth remembering that global warming has seen many glaciers recede – and it would be no surprise to see Hansen send out a 15 for that match that will look like no other All Black starting side you'll see again.)
So this is it really. Crunch time. At most you might get one player changing minds and stealing hearts in a World Cup year. In reality though, the next two months is where it's decided.
Here are four red-hot, burning questions Hansen and co will want answered… and a lukewarm one most of us on the couch would like a rejoinder to.
1. What is the best midfield combination?
Unless a freak appears from nowhere in the next six months, the options are far from limitless.
Sonny Bill Williams showed enough in his return from injury and illness to suggest he's going to play a big part in Hansen's plans, probably at 12. Ryan Crotty, Jack Goodhue, Anton Lienert-Brown and Ngani Laumape all have claims to a slot but none of them are watertight arguments.
Jordie Barrett also has utility value at the position, which could influence World Cup configurations.
It is not a crisis position by most country's standards, but it is unsettled.
The wildcard: It is hard to picture a 37-year-old Ma'a Nonu hitting the ground running again after a two years of Beaujolais and baguettes but stranger things have happened. When fit and motivated, Nonu is devastating.
2. Which loosies make the plane to Japan?
This might depend on whether the selectors replicate the 2015 model, when they took just three specialist locks and were prepared to play Jerome Kaino or Victor Vito in the second row if needed.
Ardie Savea's strong showing at No 8 in the weekend might negate the need for Luke Whitelock, though suspicions still linger as to whether the Hurricane can be as effective off the back against a scrum that isn't totally demolished.
These next assignments could provide that answer.
At the moment you use Vivid marker to put down the names Sam Cane, Kieran Read, Liam Squire and Savea, but use an easily erasable pencil for Whitelock, Shannon Frizell, Vaea Fifita, a refreshed Matt Todd, Jackson Hemopo, Akira Ioane and the even the desperately unlucky Jordan Taufua.
3. Can they tighten up their defence?
If you buy into the cliché that the World Cup will be won with defence, is there cause for concern that New Zealand lost the smartest guy in the room in Wayne Smith?
Ronan O'Gara, who spent the past season watching things very closely at the Crusaders, said this: "Defensively in Europe we are more advanced than they are, most definitely."
Is that a concern?
At times this year the All Blacks have looked a little too easy to score against, but elementally, does that work in their favour?
So many sub-questions within a question.
You suspect they would prefer the game to be looser and freer than to devolve into a one-out phase play type of game of inches and attrition. They want teams to attack them because they turn mistakes into counter-attacking opportunities better than any other team on the planet (and daylight is second).
Sacrificing the odd soft try now and then might be seen as a cost they can bear.
Whether you choose glass half empty or full, Australia, South Africa, Ireland and England are going to spend the next few weeks attacking the All Blacks in a variety of ways. We'll see if these defensive wobbles are for real or not.
4. Will the Karl Tu'inukuafe feel-great story of the year survive a rigorous tour?
This is the easiest one to answer. Yeah, the story has an incredible prologue and a strong opening chapter, but it's only shaping to get better; a real page-turner, to stretch the metaphor to breaking point.
Tu'inukuafe sounds and plays like the sort of man who knows he's been given a second shot at life and there's no way he's going to take it for granted like he did the first time around.
What is more intriguing is what it might mean for the make-up of the front row. From looking a World Cup probable a year ago, Kane Hames will now have to come back and outplay an in-form player.
Still, it's not meant to be easy.
Polite enquiry: Do the coaches remain confident Beauden Barrett's goalkicking will stand up to scrutiny over multiple weeks?
It was almost inevitable Barrett was going to answer his critics in Buenos Aires because that is what he does. Off the tee, he is the definition of mercurial.
I'm an unashamed Barrett fanboy. If you asked me who'd I pay the most to watch play rugby, only Christian Cullen at his peak would rank higher. But in little more than a year, Barrett's kicking misadventures have cost New Zealand a test against South Africa and a series win against the Lions.
To put it bluntly, at 27 years old and around 250 attempts at goal in tests, Barrett is unlikely to get much better.
Most attempts at advanced goalkicking metrics put him at negative value off the tee. That's not a problem when you're blowing teams off the park; it is a problem when you're locked in an 8-7 final or a 20-18 semifinal, scenarios the All Blacks have faced in the past two World Cup campaigns.
Barrett is the best first-five in the world. He is arguably the best player in the world. It's a strange contradiction that he is also one of the prime reasons the All Blacks might struggle to repeat.
For a coaching team that makes great mileage of their ability to plan for every situation, it would give many of us great comfort if they demonstrated that their only plan wasn't to let Barrett kick himself back into form when he started to spray them.
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Some really interesting feedback from last week's column about the increasing creep of plutocracy in New Zealand schoolboy rugby, inspired by the naming of 11 private schoolboys in the 26-man NZ secondary schools side.
One correspondent, who works in rugby so cannot be named, pointed out that NZ Rugby has fed rather than discouraged the elitist aspect of schoolboy rugby. He writes (abridged): "NZR now have their footprint all over the NZ Secondary Schools team – coach selection, apparel, programme etc. Before NZR's involvement the NZ Secondary Schools was a one team, one week, one game (vs Australia) programme allowing a window for provincial unions to run their own secondary schools programme. With NZR's involvement we now have three teams in the space (NZSS, NZ Baabaas, NZ Maori U18), a three-week programme, with multiple games."
The writer argues this has marginalised relationships between the provincial unions and the schools and fed the elite beast.
THE MIDWEEK LONG READ ...
John Urschel's story is well known, the brainiac NFL lineman, but never this well told. This is his life as a mathematician from Hmm Daily.
Okay, okay, this is not a long read. It's not really a read at all. But it is important. You need to know how to rock that rugby jersey look. From GQ.
