Incumbents Conrad Smith and Ma'a Nonu are both in serious doubt. Smith is sidelined following one of those sickening head knocks, and Nonu is battling a knee problem.
With Richard Kahui facing his 27th shoulder reconstruction - and heading overseas - stocks are low.
Highlanders general Tamati Ellison's comeback may be just in time, although I hope another Highlander, Ben Smith, gets an opportunity to wear his preferred No 15 jersey rather than No 13.
But while the nation turns its worried eyes to the middle of the park, another position provides an equally interesting discussion point.
Richie McCaw's long sabbatical has led many to assume Chiefs tyro Sam Cane will be the man to tackle the French from the openside flank.
Cane's a fine player, all right. But I wonder if there is another strong contender from these parts.
My All Black bolter is John Hardie, the Highlanders and Southland flanker who is getting back into peak form.
Hardie was a little quiet earlier this season, but that was possibly to be expected - he missed half of 2012 with injury, and besides, the Highlanders were so poor it was hard to get too excited about any individuals.
Hardie is an interesting mix of explosiveness and reliability, work rate and tackling efficiency.
He has been comfortably the best Highlanders forward this season, and I have a feeling he would fit in a black jersey quite nicely, especially with people like Kieran Read beside him.
Positive changes . . .
It could arguably be construed as the rich getting richer, and the (relatively) poor getting poorer.
But The Last Word is pleased some common sense is being applied to the issue of player wages at the lower level of New Zealand rugby.
It has been reported the ITM Cup salary cap will be reduced to $1.1 million (it was a ludicrous $2 million when it was established); the maximum player wage will be cut from $60,000 to $40,000; and All Blacks and Super rugby pay rates will be boosted.
I have no problem with the elite full-time players getting more. They are this country's most popular, most high-profile and most commercially-attractive sporting products. And, as long as the New Zealand union insists on selecting All Blacks only from players based in this country, it must be able to offer decent salaries
.... could go further
But it would seem now is the ideal time to go even further in separating, for want of better terms, the rugby royalty from the rugby riff-raff.
The ITM Cup may as well be turned into a virtual amateur competition - with players paid some sort of basic stipend, $100-$200 a week or something - because that is where it will end up, anyway.
No sponsor will be required, so we can go back to calling it the NPC. It will be the best club players from each province competing against each other.
It will not ''essentially'' be a feeder competition; it will explicitly be just that. The best of the NPC players will get a chance to impress Super rugby coaches, and pursue a professional career. Maybe, gasp, through my great draft idea.
One final step would be for all NPC games to be played at 2.30pm on a Saturday, and only one to be televised live. The product-hungry bosses at Sky would have something to say about that. But if American television giant NBC can broadcast the Olympics on ''tape delay'', why does third-tier rugby need to screen live?
Bye, bye Fergie
What more is there to say about Sir Alex Ferguson, set to retire after an incomprehensibly brilliant quarter of a century at Manchester United?This Liverpool fan will quietly hope the club slides backwards a little after he is gone - though that seems unlikely, given United's commercial power in one of the least competitive elite leagues in world sport.
There are some great numbers relating to Ferg's career, and I don't just mean the 13 league titles, the two European Cups and the five FA Cups.
He apparently outlasted 24 different managers at Real Madrid, 19 at Inter Milan, 18 at Chelsea and 14 at Manchester City.
And between his first game in charge at Manchester United and the day he announced he was retiring, no fewer than 1146 managers left jobs in the four divisions of English league football.
Sensational stadium
If you read last week's Last Word - and if not, why not? - you would have seen a quote about the stadium the Atlanta Falcons NFL team is hoping to build in the US of A.
Check out the photo on this page of one of the options. It's called the ''Pantheon'', features a retractable roof known as the ''Oculus'' and looks, er, unique.
Option two is called the ''Solarium'' and looks a little like our own Glasshouse.
The Falcons have reportedly ''reached an agreement'' with the city of Atlanta, the state of Georgia and the World Congress Centre to build a $US1 billion facility.
As mentioned last week, one of the plans features a bar that runs the length of the field, and chairs that vibrate when big tackles are made. There will also be a 360-degree video board that spans the circumference of the stadium.
Calling a truce
Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium will host a book launch next month.
Raw is the latest effort from New Zealand cricket great Martin Crowe, and should be a cracking read.
The book, we are told, will detail Crowe's ''personal battles'', covering depression, the launch of Cricket Max, his up-and-down career with Sky TV, his thoughts on new technology in cricket, and his battle with cancer.
Cricket anoraks will also eagerly consume Crowe's list of the sport's 100 greatest players, and his dream teams from the major nations.
The book is being launched with a breakfast at our covered stadium on Friday, June 14 (see the stadium website for ticket details).
Interestingly, the book is being published, and the breakfast hosted, by prolific author and erstwhile ODT columnist Joseph Romanos, who had a major falling-out with Crowe when Romanos wrote the unauthorised Tortured Genius.
Birthday of the week
Former Springbok hard man Victor Matfield is 36 today.
Greatest lock of all time?
