They are fielding their two best wings, Caleb Clarke and Tima Faingaanuku, who have five tries between them, and look to be enjoying the hot weather, while prop Alex Fidow wins his first start in Georgia.
Dalton Papali'i is injured, so was not considered for this match, while an ACL injury to prop Ryan Coxon sees him join fellow bookend Tim Farrell in being invalided out of the tournament. A replacement is to be confirmed.
While it appeared that combating the lineout drive was the one weakness of this New Zealand team, having conceded tries against Scotland and Italy in that area, Philpott offered some perspective around that.
"Interestingly enough, in the first two games we've had 17 lineout drives on us, so teams are aware that we are defensively pretty sound. We are tackling at around 96 percent, so the only opportunity teams have is to kick to the corner and have a go at us. If we'd had 17 cracks at lineout drives, we would have scored a few. We are working really hard on our D in that area, and we have a couple of options up our sleeves. We've discussed with the refs what we are doing in that area," Philpott says.
Philpott reports that the laws being trialled in the tournament around scrums and breakdown have had virtually no effect on his side. There are seven law trials, which include compulsory striking by the hooker after a scrum put-in, the No 8 being allowed to pick the ball up from the feet of the second-row, and a player is now forbidden kick the ball out of a ruck.
New Zealand will be sad to leave Kutaisi for the capital Tbilisi, as they struck up a bond with some of the local rugby people, who have offered strong support at their games, along with the travelling band of families from home.
Ireland, who lost three members of the 2016 side that reached the final prior to this event, have made 12 changes from the side that lost 32-28 to Scotland in the second round.
"It's been a difficult opening to the tournament for the team, but we have a young side and while everyone is disappointed that the results haven't gone our way so far, the players will have gained a lot from those two games," says Ireland coach Peter Malone.
"There's more players gaining their first Under 20s caps tonight so it gives them the opportunity to show what they can do in an Ireland jersey. New Zealand have looked impressive in their opening matches against Scotland and Italy, so we will need to take the 'learnings' from our opening games and be ready for a huge test."
Kickoff is at 11.30pm (NZT).
New Zealand Under 20: Will Jordan, Tima Faingaanuku, Braydon Ennor, Orbyn Leger, Caleb Clarke, Tiaan Falcon, Ere Enari, Luke Jacobson (c), Tom Christie, Sam Slade, Sam Caird, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Alex Fidow, Asafo Aumua, Ezekiel Lindinmuth
Reserves: JP Sauni, Harrison Allan, Pouri Rakete-Stones, Adrian Choat, Marino Mikaele-Tu'u, Kemara Hauiti-Parapara, Thomas Umaga-Jensen, Josh McKay
Ireland Under 20: Alan Tynan, Michael Silvester, Jack Kelly (c), David McCarthy, Liam Coombes, Conor Fitzgerald, Jonny Stewart, Sean Masterson, John Foley, Marcus Rea, Jack Regan, Gavin Coombes, Greg McGrath, Adam Moloney, Joey Conway
Reserves: Ronan Kelleher, Jordan Duggan, Charlie Connolly, Fineen Wycherley, Caelan Doris, Jack Stafford, Conor Dean, Ciaran Frawley
