The All Blacks have laid out their goals for this year's northern tour and are hoping tonight's shuffled line-up to face the Wallabies will help get them there.
All Blacks captain Kieran Read told media at yesterday's captain's run he felt the Wallabies had improved significantly since the last time the two sides met in August - a 40-12 win at Eden Park - but warned his men wanted to show development too.
"We want to dictate games," Read said when asked what was the team goal for the tour.
"In terms of territory, looking after the pill as much as you can - we're a team if we do that, we generally put ourselves in a good position if we do that.
"You've got to be aware of what oppositions will throw at you but as long as we can try and maintain as much control as we can, it'll help us."
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen appears to have selected his side with that goal in mind, opting to shuffle the backline around to allow dangerous playmaker Damian McKenzie some freedom and space at fullback.
Steve Hansen and his men have used the week to conduct some recon too. (Source: Other)
Speaking to media in Tokyo on Thursday, Hansen explained the decision to pick McKenzie at fullback, moving Ben Smith to the right wing.
"We want two playmakers on the park," Hansen began.
"Damian's spent a lot of time at five-eighth, he has those skills that we're looking for as a playmaker.
"And he's also played fullback. We'll start with him and Beauds (Beauden Barrett), and then we've got (Richie) Mo'unga to come off the bench afterwards.
"Regardless of what happens, we're going to have two available to us throughout the whole 80 minutes."
Hansen added despite the game being a dead-rubber on paper with the Bledisloe Cup already locked away for another year, he knows how important this match is for both sides with the Rugby World Cup looming.
"We'll be up against a good Australian team and they’ll be desperate to win, but so are we.
"We know that they’ll come with a lot of passion and physicality, but our focus this week has been about us and what we want to bring — intensity, skill and a triple threat game."
The sentiment was matched by Wallabies captain Michael Hooper, who is imploring his troops to dig deep in a desperate attempt to restore hope in Australian rugby with a face-saving victory in Yokohama.
"There's always a heap of motivation playing for your country, there really is," Hooper said.
"It's a shame that we're not playing for some silverware tomorrow or it's not back in Australia, but that's not the case.
"We're out there tomorrow to build as a team.
"It's been a narrow focus for us this week and we get our opportunity to play the No 1 team in the world.
"We're competitive blokes, we're in a high-performance environment, you want to be doing that, you want to be in these situations, you want to be out there when the lights are on."
Tonight's Test kicks off at 7pm from Nissan Stadium in Yokohama.
TEAMS (Test caps in brackets)
All Blacks: 1. Joe Moody (36) 2. Codie Taylor (38) 3. Owen Franks (103) 4. Samuel Whitelock (105) 5. Scott Barrett (25) 6. Liam Squire (20) 7. Ardie Savea (31) 8. Kieran Read – captain (114) 9. TJ Perenara (51) 10. Beauden Barrett (69) 11. Rieko Ioane (20) 12. Sonny Bill Williams (49) 13. Ryan Crotty (41) 14. Ben Smith (73) 15. Damian McKenzie (19)
Reserves: 16. Nathan Harris (18) 17. Karl Tu’inukuafe (9) 18. Nepo Laulala (13) 19. Brodie Retallick (71) 20. Matt Todd (14) 21. Aaron Smith (79) 22. Richie Mo’unga (4) 23. Anton Lienert-Brown (30)
Australia: 1. Scott Sio (51) 2. Folau Faingaa (5) 3. Allan Alaalatoa (29) 4. Izack Rodda (13) 5. Rob Simmons (90) 6. Ned Hanigan (17) 7. Michael Hooper (c) (87) 8. David Pocock (74) 9. Will Genia (96) 10. Bernard Foley (64) 11. Marika Koroibete (17) 12. Kurtley Beale (80) 13. Israel Folau (69) 14. Sefa Naivalu (7) 15. Dane Haylett-Petty (27)
Reserves: 16. Tolu Latu (9) 17. Sekope Kepu (99) 18. Taniela Tupou (8) 19. Rory Arnold (18) 20. Jack Dempsey (6) 21. Pete Samu (7) 22. Nick Phipps (69) 23. Samu Kerevi (21)
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