As you sit down to watch tomorrow night's NPC first-division rugby final, here are six names to think about: Xavier Rush, Carlos Spencer, Mils Muliaina, Roger Randle, Regan King and Keith Robinson.
What do they have in common, apart from sharing the same 100-odd metres of Waikato turf tomorrow night? There's
the small matter of an All Black touring squad to be named on Monday and you can be sure those six names will have been on the national selectors' notepads.
With the expectation that a cluster of apparently overworked Canterbury players will be given a holiday, the bulk of players in the 26-strong squad will come from the final.
That adds an extra edge to a game that has already been given an extraordinary buildup up this part of the country.
Without question, Waikato deserve their place in the final. Top of the tree after the round robin and convincing semifinal winners over Otago, they will start with a slight favouritism.
Auckland began dismally, losing at home to Taranaki. But there has been a sharp upward curve and they progressed to having the unmistakable air of a team who knew what they were about when they went south to topple the mighty red and blacks in Christchurch last week.
Individual battles may hold more than the key to the NPC final tomorrow night. All across the park there are some fascinating matchups, none more so than that of captains and rival No 8s, Xavier Rush and Deon Muir.
Rush has been a revelation this season, his one test cap in 1999 a distant memory. Muir has taken over Todd Blackadder's mantle as perhaps the country's premier provincial captain.
An All Black call for either would provide a fairytale conclusion to the year.
If that call goes to the man who has led his team to victory before a packed Waikato Stadium tomorrow night, there will be extra reason for a broad grin come Monday morning.
NPC schedule/scoreboard
