Keen to inflict the dominance that has marked the last decade of Bledisloe Cup rugby tests, the All Blacks have wheeled out their strongest available scrum for tomorrow's Tri-Nations finale here at Westpac Stadium.
Not only is a trimmed-down Neemia Tialata back at tighthead prop, but Tom Donnelly is introduced to form half of a powerhouse locking scrum duo with Brad Thorn.
Making way from a tight five that has lacked the scrummaging punch of recent Tri-Nations campaigns are young Cantabrians Owen Franks and Isaac Ross.
Franks, 21, has been a dynamo around the park but his age has been reflected in some of his set piece work while Ross has few peers as an athletic lock but lacks the bulk and power the All Blacks crave.
This season Thorn and Ross have continually swapped sides at scrum time, with Thorn packing on the tighthead side on New Zealand put-ins for solidity while switching to the loosehead side on opposition ball for destructive purposes.
Donnelly is renowned for his scrum work and will be a permanent loosehead lock, allowing Thorn to stay on his favoured tighthead side.
That will delight Tialata, who coach Graham Henry described as New Zealand's premier tighthead scrummager and the second best loosehead behind Tony Woodcock.
"His body (fat) composition's down and he's very, very eager to prove a point,'' Henry said of Tialata.
Hooker Andrew Hore relished the chance to pack down between a revved-up Tialata and Woodcock, who dominated veteran Australian tighthead Al Baxter during this year's wins in Auckland and Sydney.
Baxter was hooked just half an hour into the Sydney test and hasn't been seen since, an absence that hasn't gone unnoticed by Hore.
"Woodcock made life pretty hard on Baxter, I think he's playing club rugby now, that's as tough as you get really,'' Hore said.
Asked if Woodcock could repeat the dose to Baxter's replacement, ACT Brumbies youngster Ben Alexander, Hore was mischievous.
"He's just the same old Woody and keeps chipping away. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that he wants to get the better of him.''
Throwing a spanner in the works was an outstanding Wallabies scrummaging display in their defeat of South Africa in Brisbane two weeks ago.
The All Blacks couldn't do the same against the Springboks last week, prompting the changes that leave the hosts with a vast superiority in terms of test experience in the front row - 135 caps to 51.
While Wallabies loosehead Benn Robinson continues to be a revelation, Tialata attributed much of Australia's scrum progress to the bulk and technique of hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau.
