While it's hard to gauge how much resistance Italy will offer this weekend when even their own coach says they have been terrible, it's likely to be enough to accurately assess the readiness of Quinn Tupaea to push on and start against the heavyweight opposition that await the AllBlacks in the final two weeks of their season.
A rising intensity of competition for starting places has been a strong All Blacks theme in 2021 and while there is pressure being felt across the team to perform to hold a place, no one is feeling it more than the group of midfielders.
In the early part of the season there was a relatively settled feel to the midfield. David Havili was growing as a No 12 – a role he wasn't overly sure about having spent more of his professional career as a fullback.
Whatever uncertainties Havili may have had about his ability were not shared by the coaching staff who saw him as being in possession of everything he needed to facilitate the style of rugby they wanted to play, if lacking, however, the knowledge, means and experience to piece them all together in the heat of test football.
Havili brings a bit of everything to the role. He's got footwork and timing so can find holes in the heavy traffic through astute use of both, while he's big enough to bump around if he needs to.
He's a clever and capable off-loader, blessed with enough speed to shine as a fullback in Super Rugby and comes with the trump card that he's a kicker – as capable of producing a tactical probe into space as he is an agricultural hoof to safety.
That last part of his portfolio is the one that excites the All Blacks the most as they feel that a strategically astute and varied kicking game executed by multiple players is a key weapon in the war against fast-moving defences.
But as promisingly as Havili was looking earlier in the year, his wagon has come off the rails after three successive quiet and ineffective tests against South Africa and Wales respectively.
There he was against Fiji, Australia and Argentina flying through holes no one could see, to suddenly be hammering into defenders against South Africa and Wales that only he couldn't see.
Second-five is arguably the position where the pressure of a rush defence is most keenly felt and Havili struggled to find a way to adjust his game to be effective when his preferred running lines were blocked and time on the ball reduced.
New cap Quinn Tupaea with Rieko Ioane addressing the media after the naming of the All Blacks. Photo / Dean Purcell.
His connection with Beauden Barrett was poor in all three tests – too often he overran his first-five or couldn't hold possession and the All Blacks failed to build the sort of continuity on which their plan is built.
That his inexperience in the role was exposed in the first test against the Boks was forgivable and perhaps even inevitable given that was the first time he'd faced them as a No 12.
But the failure to adapt and find a way to be influential in either the second test or against Wales, who asked many of the same questions, has left the door open to Tupaea.
He's quietly impressed with the simplicity and accuracy of his game and All Blacks coach Ian Foster probably can't help but wonder whether a no-frills approach based on direct, hard running and occasional but astute off-loading is what is needed in their No 12 at the moment.
Playing Italy, however terrible they may have been, is the single biggest challenge of Tupaea's fledgling test career to date and will provide All Blacks coach Ian Foster with a better means to determine just how composed and capable the youngster really is.
If he can produce another 80 minutes similar to the performance he delivered against the USA two weeks ago, the argument to involve him against Ireland and/or France will be strong.
The All Blacks, idealistically, have a vision of using a multi-skilled No 12 to build the number of ways they can keep a defence guessing, but there's an attraction, too, about Tupaea's muscular, low-risk approach.
Again, ideally the All Blacks want a No 12 to be the eyes and ears of their first-five and buy them time and space to make good decisions, but if Tupaea can be on hand to smash the ball over the gainline, he'll achieve the same pressure-relieving outcome through a more basic means.
And maybe simple, effective ball-carrying is the priority skill that the All Blacks will need against Ireland and France. The additional visionary work, play-making and astute kicking can come from Jordie Barrett at fullback and Tupaea can be left to focus on bringing the stronger connection and continuity the team needs in the most cluttered part of the field.
If Tupaea nails this core role against Italy, Foster is going to feel almost compelled to see if he can do it again against one of Ireland or France.
