The All Blacks have opted for an extra midfield player - five instead of four - for next month's three-test series against France.
And coach Steve Hansen may need them all, with Crusaders kingpin Ryan Crotty suffering another head injury against the Blues on Saturday night.
Crotty, Sonny Bill Williams, Crotty, Jack Goodhue, Ngani Laumape and Anton Lienert-Brown have all been named in coach Steve Hansen's 33-man squad on Sunday, with Goodhue probably the bolter among the group.
It's an unusual move by the selectors, but Hansen saw this as the best opportunity to develop the established midfielders a year out from the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
"We think that's an area of our team we want to consolidate," said Hansen. "There a number of people who could have been there, but we had to consolidate our strength in numbers.
"We mixed our squad to put in the five, probably at the expense of taking a sixth back-three player, but we've got that covered by Damian [McKenzie] being able to play there."
Hansen said that Hurricanes winger Ben Lam went "real close" to making the squad, so he seems the unlucky one to miss out.
Lam has been in sublime form with the Hurricanes, scoring 14 tries this season and keeping former international Julian Savea out of the starting side.
But naming five midfielders could also be precautionary, after Crotty failed another concussion test during the first half of Saturday's Super rugby fixture - his third since November last year.
Crotty is developing a worrying record of brain injuries and Crusaders coach Scott Robertson confirmed he will need to pass Head Injury Assessment (HIA) protocols before he can be considered for next week's game against top-of-the-table Hurricanes.
All Blacks selector Grant Fox confirmed that five centres were a rare occurrence and he doesn't expect that to flow through to the Rugby Championship later this year.
"When you look at your midfield, you have to look at how your match-day 23 scrubs up," said Fox. "There are eight players on the bench and you can't cover everyone, so you need some utility value.
"Anton can cover 12 and 13, as Crotty can. Sonny is exclusively 12, Jack is 13, Ioane is 12 and there are some guys who are very experienced who have played plenty of minutes for us.
"It is going to get competitive, because five won't go into four when the big tournaments come along, so we need to find more about these guys."
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