It's dangerous to read too much into a small sample size.

A handshake here, a couple of backline moves there and you can be fooled into thinking someone's definitely playing for the All Blacks on Saturday.

New Zealand don't name their team to meet Argentina at Trafalgar Park until Thursday, but it seems safe enough to suggest that Nelson might be the city where Richie Mo'unga starts a test match for the first time. Having been on an end-of-year tour, had a taste of test footy off the bench against France and then run the water bottles in last month's Bledisloe Cup matches, Mo'unga's apprenticeship appears over.

It's time to see how well he can run a test-match cutter.

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"Just to get a feel for what test matches are about," All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster said of why Mo'unga was running water against the Wallabies.

"It's a bittersweet role isn't it, for a player. They want to be out there but, in some ways, it's the next-best thing for him.

"It's not something we'd do with just anyone, but as a coaching group we felt he'd benefit from just hearing the talk in the huddle, the tactical side [of things] and that he'd have some input in that area, because clearly that's his area, and it just helps break the ice for what its like in a test match, so [that] when it comes his time he's just a little bit further advanced."

BRADEN FASTIER/STUFF Richie Mo'unga warms up at a training session in Nelson on Tuesday ahead of Saturday's test with Argentina.

It's no certainty that Mo'unga will start on Saturday. Beyond Beauden Barrett, who appears to have put to bed any suggestion that he's not New Zealand's best first-five, Damian McKenzie is also in this All Blacks squad. He's well worth a start at 10 himself.

However, it might be that McKenzie begins the game at fullback against the Pumas and then finishes off at first-five.

The other impediment to a Mo'unga start might be what's happening at halfback. It looks as if TJ Perenara will play there, which could convince the coaches not to go with an entirely new halves combination.

GETTY IMAGES The stage looks set for TJ Perenara to start at halfback for the All Blacks in Nelson on Saturday night.

Foster has talked about retaining some continuity from the teams that beat Australia so, if Perenara did start, there might be a temptation to retain Barrett at 10.

Clearly Mo'unga start a test match at some stage and the All Blacks won't get many better opportunities to assess him than this. It's been a very relaxed week in Nelson, where the atmosphere will be good – but hardly electric – on Saturday. The Pumas are a decent team, but aren't likely to beat New Zealand, so there wouldn't be huge external pressure on Mo'unga.

He could relax, play his natural game and perhaps look ahead to more match time later in the year against teams such as Japan or Italy.

Argentina: Emiliano Boffelli, Bautista Delguy, Matias Moroni, Jeronimo De la Fuente, Ramiro Moyano, Nicolas Sanchez, Martin Landajo, Javier Ortega Desio, Marcos Kremer, Tomas Lavanini, Guido Petti, Tomas Lezana, Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, Agustin Creevy, Santiago Garcia Botta. Reserves: Juan Cruz Mallia, Bautista Ezcurra, Tomas Cubelli, Pablo Matera, Matias Alemanno, Gaston Cortes, Juan Pablo Zeiss, Julian Montoya.