The first All Blacks' squad of 2017 has been named with Steve Hansen announcing his side to face Samoa on Friday.
Here's four key stats from the 23-man named squad.
68 Ben Smith will become the 68th player to captain the All Blacks. He will lead the side in his 61sttest match. The last back to captain the All Blacks was Mils Muliaina in 2009. He captained New Zealand in three tests, the first of which was a defeat to France in Dunedin. The last captain from the Highlanders was Andrew Hore who was the skipper in the All Blacks 2011 World Cup pool game against Canada. 21 of the 68 players to have captained the All Blacks did so for just one test, and Smith is a chance to join that list with Kieran Read set to return to the role against the Lions.
There have been 13 Smiths who have played for the All Blacks and Ben Smith will become the second after Johnny Smith in 1949 to captain the side.
1158/1159 Hurricanes duo Vaea Fifita and Jordie Barrett are the two new caps in the squad and will become All Blacks 1158 and 1159. There were 11 new All Blacks last season.
There is a chance three Barretts will be on the field at the same time with Scott and Beauden also in the matchday 23. There are also two Saveas and two Smiths (not related)
50 Beauden Barrett will play his 50th test for the All Blacks tomorrow night. It will be his 20th test start. He will also be playing his first test against Samoa. He currently has 297 test points and is poised to be the fifth All Black to score 300 test points.
871 The All Blacks matchday 23 has a total of 871test caps. With Beauden Barrett bringing up his 50, there will be 10 players in the 23-man squad who would have played in at least 50 tests for the All Blacks. Owen Franks will be the most capped player on the field with his 91st appearance tomorrow night.
