KEY POINTS:
Roadtest or roadkill? The debates continue about the prospects for the All Blacks' first appearance this season although the noise level is down on other years.
Interest is reduced too on the evidence of the regular barometers - tickets sold, buzz around town and talkback radio discussion. There is competition like the start of the Louis Vuitton final, the suggestion that the weather may be a bit dodgy at Eden Park and the forecasts, even from France, that the Tricolores will be moderate opposition only for the All Blacks.
Roadkill, huh? Just like the Welsh were supposed to be for the Wallabies last weekend?
That will be the motivational tactic used by the All Blacks coaching staff although there should be little need for any warnings for a squad shooting to make the cut for the World Cup squad next month. Across town, French coach Bernard Laporte will be striving to create an "us against the world" mentality as a way of getting his squad ready after their minimal preparation.
The French were blown away twice last year on their home patch by the All Blacks and it is hard to see their pick-up side of some grizzly forwards and rookie backs staying within a 25-point margin tonight. There will be a number of wrinkles in the All Blacks too, but they played a lot together last year and if they set the foundations of their game early, there should be dividends in the final stages of this international.
Since the All Black squad was chosen, the emphasis has been on sorting out their methods without getting in a tangle about opponents about whom they have little information.
"The excitement levels have been pretty good this week and I think for a number of reasons the guys are pretty happy to be back in this environment and looking forward to what is going to be a big year," captain Richie McCaw said.
"We want to start it off pretty well. We talked about it when we first came here that it was important to get the first week right, the first three tests before the Tri-Nations right, and it has been a good week so far and hopefully we will put a good performance out there first up.
"This game is all about not letting our standards slip from what we have done last year on the end-of-year tour. The key is to get back to playing and doing the things we did well on that tour. We made some improvements in our lineout and we want to make sure we get back to that standard - little things like that.
"If we can walk away and say we are not far away from where we have been in the past, we'll be happy, so that is the main goal this weekend - to put down a good performance."
McCaw did not feel he had been under any extra scrutiny from referees on his return to the Super 14 this season. He had been sinbinned twice but those were his mistakes rather than any excessive surveillance from match officials.
Chris Masoe and Isaia Toeava will be two All Blacks under extra inspection though. Masoe will start his third test at No 8, where he is the nominated backup for Rodney So'oialo, while Toeava returns to the international stage where he looked so jittery in his previous five tests.
He was chosen at centre against the Wallabies at Eden Park last year but was pulled soon after halftime after a faltering performance. However Toeava's work throughout the Super 14 and a lack of other contenders has him back in black tonight.
"He is growing all the time, he was very young when he got in the side and is still very young now but you can see quite a difference in him and I think that's about believing that he is good enough to be here now," coach Graham Henry said.
"Perhaps he didn't believe that before, perhaps other people saw things in him that he didn't see and I think he knows now that he is good enough."
