Quinn Tupaea

Quinn Tupaea will start at second five-eighth, with prop George Bower, loose forward Ethan Blackadder and halfback Finlay Christie set to make their Test debuts from the bench.

Tupaea fills a void left by the injuries to a number of mid-fielders including Jack Goodhue, Anton Lienert-Brown and Braydon Ennor, while Ngani Laumape has decided to play in France.

Make no mistake, the All Blacks understand they have some work to do in their midfield space in general, and the No 12 position in particular as they open a challenging campaign likely to grow to 15 tests with their July series against Tonga (July 3) and Fiji (July 10 and 17).

The 22-year-old is coming off a breakout performance in the win over the Blues a fortnight ago – a coming of age display for a young man who, until then, had largely under-delivered on his huge potential.

A football player till his last year of primary school, Tupaea was then a star in rugby through Hamilton Boys’ High, captaining the New Zealand Secondary Schools team, then dazzling in his maiden provincial season with Waikato in 2018.