The low of having more than a dozen players on the injured list earlier in the season has slowly disappeared for Highlanders coach Tony Brown and he had the luxury of naming in-form players, such as Gareth Evans and Rob Thompson, on the bench.
Leading the returning players is captain Ben Smith, who has missed the past three games because of an ankle injury and did not make the trip to South Africa and the stop back in Perth.
He is well rested and is raring to go in what will be his 127th game for the franchise — tying the record held by Anton Oliver.
Brown said next week when he set a new mark was the one to celebrate but it had been a great achievement to get this far.
"It is just great for Ben, to not only get alongside a guy like Anton Oliver but potentially next week to beat his record and be the most capped Highlander of all time will be something he will look back [on] when he retires and think he has put in a pretty good stint for a team that he was brought up loving," Brown said.
Smith’s reappearance, along with winger Waisake Naholo coming back from suspension, allows Brown to give Matt Faddes and Patrick Osborne a rest.
Thompson will cover the outside back spots while All Black Lima Sopoaga is on the bench again. Brown said that had always been the intention and he had full confidence in Marty Banks to keep up his high standard.
"We don’t want to rush Lima. He’s been out for nine weeks and we didn’t let him play any club rugby as we wanted to integrate him back into our team off the bench. The plan was to always give him two games off the bench and reassess next week.
"Marty has been an outstanding player for us now for three years. He’s never let us down and ... he is enjoying it and loving his footy."
No8 Luke Whitelock is over his calf injury and comes back into the team. Elliot Dixon, who has played in all three loose forward positions this year, moves to the blindside flank while Dillon Hunt continues on the openside flank.
He may have some challengers next week as Dan Pryor starts for Kaikorai in club rugby this week while James Lentjes is also scheduled to have a run for Taieri.
The challenge of the Crusaders and the British and Irish Lions awaits but Brown said his team was one which took one game at a time.
The Waratahs have named an unchanged team from last week, when they defeated the Rebels 50-23 in Sydney.
The Waratahs will spend some days in Queenstown after the match at Forsyth Barr Stadium before playing the Chiefs in Hamilton on June 3.