Richard Kahui is hoping for a belated birthday present when the All Blacks squad for the first English rugby test is named tomorrow -- though in a sense it's already Christmas.
The debutant-in-waiting turned 23 today and although he has already unwrapped a pile of team issue training gear the injury-plagued Waikato and Chiefs centre will only really feel part of the set-up when he takes the field.
It seems unlikely Kahui will fragment the Hurricanes midfield combination of Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith that twice made telling breaks to help defeat the Irish 21-11 in Wellington last weekend.
Head coach Graham Henry names his 22 for Saturday night's test at Eden Park before training tomorrow and Kahui was coy when asked if he had sensed encouraging signs.
"I'm frothing at the mouth to get out and have the first cap under my belt.
"Hopefully it will be this week or the week after -- at some stage I'm going to get a run," said the talented midfielder who still can't quite believe he's in the national side.
Kahui has been on the selectors' radars for at least three seasons -- not that the former age-group representative has been fully employed in either of them.
The Tokoroa-born builder has constructed a worrying medical history since he made the step-up to the elite grade and inevitably the 2008 Super 14 was no different.
This season Kahui logged just eight appearances for the Chiefs -- still a drastic improvement on the three he managed in 2007 before a shoulder reconstruction was required.
He missed the subsequent Air New Zealand Cup and although he made a successful return in February with the Chiefs an ankle injury cut his campaign, coinciding with his side's decline in South Africa.
"I wouldn't have believed I'd have been in this position two or three weeks ago," he confessed.
"I didn't expect to be here. I've had a few injuries but the coaches obviously have a bit of faith in my ability. Hopefully I can repay that when I get a chance. I want to prove I should be there."
Until he was named alongside flatmate and fellow newcomer Stephen Donald on June 1, Kahui though his rugby involvement would be confined to New Zealand Maori and then Waikato.
"I didn't feel I had enough games to show myself, it takes more than one good game to be an All Black but obviously they've (coaches) seen enough over the past few years," he said.
"The challenge for me is to get a few games and make a push for the starting centre spot and give Conrad a bit of a push.
"He's rated the No 1 centre and rightly so. He only had one touch of the ball last weekend and he made something happen," he said of Smith's break that set up the All Blacks' first try for Sitiveni Sivivatu.