‘‘Our job has been to create a week where we haven’t overcluttered our guys.’’

Steve Hansen

Beauden Barrett whose job it will be to orchestrate the attacking changes, largely to deal with those rushing lines.

‘‘We don’t want to overdo it,’’ he said. ‘‘We understand we’re up against a very good French side, and it’s the first test of the year, so we want to keep it quite simple.’’

In essence, the All Blacks have accepted that line-speed is the new norm in rugby, and it’s up to them to adjust to it. That starts now.

‘‘It’s a fact of life that for all rugby teams, from north to south, line-speed is important,’’ explained Hansen. ‘‘Interestingly, France come fast and then push off, and that makes them even more dangerous. They give a lot of fool’s gold out wide, so we have to be smart about what we do with it.’’

Again Barrett was on point: ‘‘They do drift off and show a bit of fool’s gold. They’re probably the best at up-and-out defence, and you have to keep a close eye on them.’’

What France bring is the great unknown. They have been here for 10 days, and have an intriguing mix of old hands and young comers. And, as the All Blacks keep telling us, they are ‘‘the best defensive team in the world’’.

But they have lost 11 straight against the All Blacks, have left an array of key men at home, and are still very much in a rebuilding process. In the recent Six Nations, when they won just one of four loseable matches, they were competitive, yet strikingly fallible.

And this is Eden Park. The All Blacks simply don’t lose here. It was 1994 (the French), and 41 tests ago, when they were last rolled on their home fortress. Rust or no rust, new gameplan or old, that streak should extend tonight.