If the NPC needed any extra impetus it came with comments this week from All Black coach Wayne Smith.
For public consumption, he suggested the All Blacks had some way to go in their quest to head world rugby and some players had been put on notice that they had to scrub up to make the tour to Europe at the end of the year.
One can only imagine then, how Smith, an intensely driven and demanding man, must have given his tune-ups in private after his squad split the Tri-Nations tests two-all.
He was disappointed, felt let down, he demanded more from his professional athletes.
The inspection of the NPC will get stronger and more opinionated after Smith's critique of the All Blacks and his search for players with the hardest mental edge to their sport.
It has been common practice for All Blacks to return to the NPC when they were available, but they did not always play flat out.
The standard of sides in the first division was uneven enough for those test players to choose the NPC matches where they had to be at full throttle.
They can forget that pattern after Smith's ultimatum.
Those sorts of threats have been held against established test players in the past but somehow you sensed it was usually a bluff from whatever All Black coach was involved.
A celebrated example was on the 1991 tour to Argentina when Alex Wyllie got the hump with regular test props Richard Loe and Steve McDowell. Wyllie bracketted them with Graham Purvis and Laurence Hullena for the final test as some sort of scare tactic.
Come the test, Loe and McDowell played.
Smith will not offer that same selection generosity when he and his selectors pick the 26-strong squad for the matches in Japan, France and Italy. He wants improvement from those who have worked through the seven tests so far, otherwise consistent NPC work from others will be rewarded.
Cruise control is not an option for the All Blacks - not when there are players from north to south such as Glenn Taylor, Justin Collins, Matua Parkinson, Mark Robinson, Andrew Blowers, Carlos Spencer, Koula Tukino, Mark Ranby, Royce Willis, Kupu Vanisi, Jerry Collins, Dion Waller, Jason Spice, Jason'O'Halloran, Chris Jack, Daryl Gibson and Paul Miller putting on pressure.
The Otago All Blacks who (unwisely) played last week all - except for Byron Kelleher - looked flat against North Harbour. They did not stack up against their opposites and those displays are all the watching public can use to make their judgments.
Every time these players pull on their provincial kit they will be rated against their opposites or others in the same position.
At the end of October when the All Black squad is revealed we will know whether Smith always had a safety catch on the guillotine or dropped it as he has threatened.
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