All Blacks: Adam is the first man to pick

All Black conditioning coach Nick Gill said Adam Thomson (above) is 'still mobile and still the fastest loosie in the squad'. Photo / Getty Images

If this is a selection tour, as the All Black coaches say it is, then their job this week is not going to be terribly hard. There are, injuries depending, just two positions where there is need for debate.

The only uncertainties are who partners Brad Thorn at lock and who wears No 6 - Adam Thomson or Jerome Kaino.

That's it. For all the angst and frustration there has been this season, the All Blacks have finally settled in terms of game plan and personnel. Where once there were doubts about the make-up of the top team, now it's clear who has what it takes and which combinations work.

To play France, a side that is now looking ominously good after a year of experimentation by new coach Marc Lievremont, the All Black selectors will have to decide whether the combative and confrontational approach of Jerome Kaino is a better option than the raw pace and turnover expertise of Thomson.

Kaino is being fashioned more and more into a traditional hit man - a Jerry Collins type who can punish defences with his ball carrying and put opponents down hard.

He was committed against Wales without ever carrying that same edge of volatility that Collins did - and, as an enforcer, Kaino is not one who will be taken terribly seriously by the French and their all-action captain Thierry Dusautoir.

Thomson has gelled better with Kieran Read and Richie McCaw - with this particular trio causing Australia all manner of problems in both Wellington and Tokyo. In those tests, that trio came to dominate the collision, not so much through muscle but through their collective speed that allowed them to set up in better body positions and steal the critical inches.

France were tough enough to beat South Africa in an out-and-out dog fight. The game was played around the set-piece; the French worked the rolling maul and there was some continuity and cohesion in the way they worked big forwards through the midfield.

The All Blacks will have to match the French threat in the set-piece; they will have to front in the close-counter rumble and they will have to clear bodies at the collision - all the usual boxes that have to be ticked.

Where they might have an edge is in their ability to play football nearer the touchlines and that's the reason for picking Thomson ahead of Kaino.

Remember this about the French - they can handle the All Blacks if they pick and drive. In 2007, Dusautoir made 38 tackles in the quarter-final. As a former black belt in judo, he used his knowledge of balance and body weights to make more tackles than the entire All Black team did that night.