All Blacks: Monsters, not weaklings, expected at Carisbrook

Don't bother telling the French the All Blacks lineup they will face tonight is weak. They won't have a bar of it.

"I've never seen a bad All Blacks team," assistant coach Emile Ntamack said. "I'm sure they'll be ready on Saturday."

New Zealanders might be struggling to look past the gaping holes left by the absence of Richie McCaw and Dan Carter; be pondering the implications of locking situation that is just a Brad Thorn hamstring strain away from depending on an uncapped Crusader and a Hurricanes reserve; and wondering where all the nation's wingers have gone. But where the locals see uncertainty, the tourists see only opportunities for future "superstars" to emerge.

Ntamack didn't so much make a play for the underdog ground as lay claim to it.

"I respect the All Blacks too much to think that the new players in the squad will be fragile," he said. "The All Blacks are still the All Blacks. They are the best team in the world and everybody knows that. And I sure when you are a player with the All Black jersey on your back you are like a big monster. I'm sure we are going to see 15 big monsters on the field."

No stranger to success against the All Blacks as a player, Ntamack insisted the lack of an extended build-up and the rigours of a lengthy club season mitigated against the likelihood of this French side emulating the heroes of 1994, 1999 and 2007.

"For that you need time. In 1994 [the tests] were after maybe six weeks in the country. That was true during the World Cup in 1999 and the last World Cup in 2007. Each time the French team was ready to fight, ready for a very tough game.

"Now it is a little different. For the French players it was a long, long season. They are tired. But maybe they can forget for one game that they are tired.

"In their minds I think the players are ready to play a tough game. This week was very interesting for us. I think we are ready. Now we must just stay concentrated on the game."

The fact that it is the first meeting between the sides since France's against-all-odds victory in Cardiff is also not lost on Ntamack.

"It is not revenge, the past is the past. But I'm sure to the people of New Zealand to beat the French will be very important.We know that. That's why I'm sure it will be very tough."