Whether he starts or comes off the bench doesn't matter, but a 40-minute shift from Faumuina could be invaluable. He's responded well to having been dropped this year for a lack of fitness and poor scrummaging.
The message was received and understood and Faumuina is fitter and trimmer. His cameo at Ellis Park was notable - he drove the Boks back over their goal-line on his own at one point and had a couple of strong ball carries.
When he's fit, as he now is, Faumuina is a big contributor away from the set-piece. He's a more natural ball player than Owen Franks, a better athlete and a better tackler. His scrummaging is not quite in the same league, but it's not that far off and easily good enough to trouble a Wallaby scrum that would be flustered if it got caught in a paper bag.
Perhaps the best plan would be to send Franks out for the first 40 minutes to soften up the Wallabies and then use Faumuina's greater breadth of skills and ability to capitalise when the game is inevitably going to be more open and expansive.
Whatever the chronology, Faumuina is a player who can lift those around him, make a neat pass, throw a dummy or drive through three defenders to open space for others and build momentum.
Piutau, although through vastly different means, is much the same. He has an outrageous set of skills and is reassuringly devoid of inhibition.
It was this time last year that he came to life - called up late to play on the right wing against the Wallabies in Dunedin, he was close to man of the match.
He was the man of the match two weeks later against Japan and the coaches felt they had no choice but to start him against France in Paris.
It was an inspired selection as Piutau scored the opening try with an audacious chip and chase and set up the second with an offload that was as good as anything Sonny Bill Williams could produce.
These tight games at this time of year often come down to one moment of magic. It was Piutau's genius that won the day in Paris.
As much as it may appear the Wallabies are in disarray and heading towards catastrophic humiliation at Suncorp, they still have the ability to take the All Blacks to the wire.
They could make it uncomfortably tight and the Charlies could be the men to see the All Blacks home.
NZ picking fired up Oz
While it may appear that it is anything but business as usual for the imploding Wallabies, the All Blacks are working on the assumption they will be facing a typically intense, focused and driven Australia on Saturday night.
The drama surrounding the wayward Kurtley Beale has the potential to pull the last thread holding Australia together. It could, however, just as easily be a galvanising force that inspires the Wallabies to a cohesive and emotionally-charged performance on a ground that has become the closest thing they have to a fortress.
The All Blacks are working on the latter theory - believing the big top antics will exit stage left by business time.
"The whistle will go and it will be 80 minutes of very tough Australia-versus-All Blacks football," said assistant coach Ian Foster. "We know they are going to come out on a ground they hold pretty sacred to them and play with all their heart and they have got a lot to gain from that.
