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The All Blacks draw card appeal is so high that extra tickets for this weekend's test against Wales sold out in three minutes.
Stadium officials installed hundreds of extra seats to cope with the demand for Saturday's match where Wales will be looking for their first win over
the All Blacks, world number ones and 2007 World Cup favourites, for 53 years.
The additional tickets went on sale at Wednesday and had all been sold in three minutes.
Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Roger Lewis said: "The atmosphere at the stadium with a crowd this size is going to be electric."
One half of Wales' famous "Hair Bear Bunch" says the All Blacks stand apart from other international rugby teams for their mix of brawn and brains.
Prop Duncan Jones, best known for his curly mop of long blond hair, said his team were bracing for a clinical onslaught from the New Zealand forward pack in Sunday morning's (NZT) rugby test here.
"They've got the physicality and the aggression, but they bring a lot of technical know-how," he said.
"You can be as physical as you like but if you channel that in the wrong areas, then you waste a lot of energy.
"Where the All Blacks are very good is that they're very technically sound with all of that."
Jones, who beat off impressive Lions loosehead Gethin Jenkins for a starting spot, captained a weakened Wales side in Argentina in June.
Sunday's test sees nearly an identical front row clash as the last meeting of the teams here a year ago, won 41-3 by a dominant All Blacks.
New Zealand's frontrow of props Carl Hayman and Neemia Tialata, and hooker Anton Oliver started that game while the Welsh props were Jones and tighthead Adam Jones -- whose mane is as outlandish as his namesake's, only dark in colour.
Perhaps wary of any jibes that might come his way at the first scrum, Duncan Jones didn't want to discuss the "taffros" he and close friend Adam Jones sport.
"A lot is made about the hair. At the end of the day it's just hair, it's not anything important," he said.
"It looks a little bit different but that's all it is."
The "props with mops", better known as the "Hair Bear Bunch", developed a cult following at their Neath club several seasons ago. The club merged with Swansea to become Ospreys, with fans donning curly wigs in their thousands.
The popularity lives on. This week the Jones boys joined forces with local identity Pudsey Bear to encourage fans to buy a striped bobble hat in aid of a charity.
Pudsey Bear hasn't been included in the Welsh squad for this weekend.
- NZPA
