Brown said yesterday none of the side’s eight All Blacks would line up in the tournament at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane in two weeks.
The availability of the All Blacks has come under the spotlight in the past few days after New Zealand Rugby Players Association chief executive Rob Nichol said no All Blacks would play in the tournament. That was despite some heavy promotion around the event featuring All Blacks.
Brown said he had always planned to rest his side’s eight All Blacks and that had not changed despite the focus on their non-availability.
He said the younger players in the squad would be excited to play in the tournament and the All Blacks would simply not be in a position to play in the tournament.
"We have always planned to have no-one involved," he said.
"As a player it is something that is really exciting. Gives them [players] the opportunity to prepare against some quality opposition. For us we are preparing for that challenge and it is going to be a tough weekend. Hopefully, physically and mentally the boys are able to get through it and set themselves up through a pretty good Super rugby season.
"We do not want to take anyone who is not prepared. From my point of view, the All Blacks are not ready to play rugby at that stage so we will just take the rest of our squad.
"They have done all the work and are looking forward to it. It will be exciting for the young guys to go out there and play against quality players from right around the world."
All of the All Blacks will be available for the final warm-up match of the season, against the Waratahs on February 16. Brown said although there were five days between the Brisbane tournament and the match against the Waratahs in Sydney, that five-day rest — away from contact — was still needed for the returning All Blacks.
The All Blacks would come back and rejoin the squad after their summer break on Monday and would be put through the hard paces over the next couple of weeks to get up to speed.
Co-captain Ben Smith would have another week off and rejoin the squad on February 6. Brown said he had heard nothing new about Smith’s future plans.
The side will have a warm-up match for the shortened version of the game this afternoon at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Games are played in 10-minute halves with five forwards and five backs on the field.