Scott Barrett has another opportunity to send a message to selectors that he deserves to be one of the two starting locks for the All Blacks' World Cup campaign.
Rewind 12 months and any suggestion that either Sam Whitelock or Brodie Retallick might lose their run-on spots would have been nigh on unfathomable, but Barrett hasn't so much knocked as torn down the selectors' door this season with a series of jaw-dropping displays that have made him impossible to ignore.
With Retallick injured and out of action until at least the All Blacks' second pool match, the question is relatively moot at this stage. With coach Ian Foster clearly eager to give his first-choice side another run, Barrett was certain to pack down in the No.4 jersey against the Springboks at Twickenham on Saturday (NZ time).
Barrett admits the competition for those two positions isn't lost on him and has been reflected in the intensity seen on the training field.
"This year, there's been a lot of competition with Brodie, myself and Sam," Barrett said. "With Brodie being out, it's good to pack down alongside Sam - someone familiar - and he's firing and excited about.
"I think it's a good headache for the coaches to work out who they're going to select and any internal competition is good.
"We're all working together, but there's some good competition at training… it's good for the team."
A South African team wounded from their last contest against the All Blacks will provide another golden opportunity for Barrett to stake his own positional claim, as well as providing another timely litmus test for the team.
With their World Cup opener just over two weeks away, few opponents could offer the kind of battle-hardening the Springboks will at London, where you won't hear any player dare reduce the test to a "warm-up".
Barrett sat out the final Bledisloe Cup test at Dunedin, so he's replenished and primed to throw his weight into competition against the heavyweight Boks pack.
"We know the South African DNA and how they want to play the game," he noted. "It's at Twickenham, a pretty amazing stadium, so it's the perfect build-up we need heading into the World Cup.
"My body is feeling fresh, so excited to get out there.
"You don't need much more motivation than playing the 'Boks. The way that they play, it's always a huge occasion for us big boys up front."
In their lone Rugby Championship meeting at Mt Smart, the All Blacks bolted out of the gate to take a 20-3 lead into halftime, before the talent-stacked South African substitutes took the field and turned the match back into a contest, with the All Blacks breaking clear late for a 35-20 win.
Many of those players off the bench are back in the starting XV this weekend, including bulldozing hooker Malcolm Marx, so this team presents a different challenge to the one they ousted in Auckland - a fact not lost on Barrett.
"You definitely get confidence from that [Mt Smart win], but within that game, I think we started really well, and the 'Boks actually wrestled back into it and put a lot of pressure on our breakdown," Barrett recalled.
"They'll learn from that and they'll probably want to implement that from the start."
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