Jordan Taufua of the Crusaders and Luke Whitelock of the Highlanders. Photo / Photosport
Jordan Taufua of the Crusaders and Luke Whitelock of the Highlanders. Photo / Photosport
There's a three test series in June but the All Blacks have picked a squad which is as much designed with the World Cup in mind as it is with beating France next month.
It's a squad that throws up more questions than it does answers because the balance has been distorted by the abundance of loose forwards.
The stress there has impacted on the selectors' plans at blindside, too as Liam Squire will most likely fill in at No 8 for most of the upcoming French series and with Jerome Kaino having retired, that leaves the All Blacks short of options at No 6.
So it's a kind of mass audition for players who could easily enough wear No 6 or No 8 in the hope that one, or maybe two will be developed to the point where they become a legitimate longer term option and create a deeper sense of competition in the final 12 months before the World Cup.
Jordan Taufua has been in great form for the Crusaders but the selectors aren't necessarily convinced he has a wide enough skills portfolio. They will be looking for him to be more than just a rampant ball carrier.
Shannon Frizell, the little sighted 24-year-old from the Highlanders, has in his limited Super Rugby game time, shown an explosive edge both on attack and defence and is a rangy, raw athlete with bruising power.
But he's barely played in even Super Rugby and the plan with him will be to see how coachable he is, how he's able to adapt to the pressure of being an All Black and get a sense of what he's all about.
Luke Whitelock is a supremely good defender, tidy lineout operator, good learner and dependable performer.
But at this level that's not enough and his challenge will be to bring more edge to his ball carrying and up his dynamism.
The situation in the midfield is a little different despite the similarity of the ranks being over populated.
The selectors have picked five midfielders rather than their usual four and presumably Sonny Bill Williams and Ryan Crotty will have deduced that they face what will become an increasingly ferocious battle to ward off the three younger men ahead of next year's World Cup.
Williams and Crotty will be given their opportunity to stake their claim against France and establish they are the best pairing, but Ngani Laumape, Jack Goodhue and Anton Lienert-Brown will be drip fed into the action and if they develop the way the selectors expect, there will be an intensity of competition that should drive performance.
Sonny Bill Williams of the Blues is tackled by Codie Taylor, Jack Goodhue and Quinten Strange of the Crusaders. Photo / Photosport
"There are some guys, Sonny and Ryan who are very experienced and played a lot of minutes for us and we have some young talent and that is going to get competitive because soon enough in the future with a big tournament, five might not go into four," says All Blacks selector Grant Fox.
"So we need to find a lot more about these guys and test drive them a bit more. If we understand them we can grow them.
"We are lucky we have some talent in this area as we have in the back three. There are some other areas that are a bit more challenging – in the loose forwards we are trying to find out a little bit more about what we have actually got."
And this plan to slowly develop the next generation around an established senior core will inevitably see pressure being felt by everyone later in the year.
It's a deliberate plan to keep everyone on edge, to remove any complacency and use the natural competition to drive performance.
That worked well for the All Blacks in late 2014 and 2015 when they had a wider group of 40 genuine test players competing for 31 World Cup places.
How that same scenario will develop in the next six months won't necessarily be obvious to everyone today but by October, if the coaches have got things right, they should have an even harder task picking a squad than they did this time.
