France will fly out players just hours after they play a club final in Paris to make sure a full-strength team faces the All Blacks at Carisbrook.
The New Zealand Rugby Union announced yesterday Carisbrook would host the first game of next year's international season, with France making its first test visit to the South.
France has never played the All Blacks at Carisbrook, though it played Otago in 1968 and 1984.
Revenge will undoubtedly be in the air.
The last time the sides met was in Cardiff in October last year, when the French side knocked the All Blacks out of the World Cup in the quarterfinals.
Otago Rugby Football Union chief executive Richard Reid, who was thrilled to get the test at Carisbrook, said the theme of revenge was one option to help promote the test.
He was aiming for a second successive sell-out after the test against the Springboks in July this year was sold out 26 days before the game was played.
"Getting this test is a direct result of the success of the Springboks test. Everyone who got involved was fully supportive," Reid said.
"The best thing about a rugby test in Dunedin is the way the city comes together and everyone has good fun."
He would have taken any test next year, but to get the first-up French test was great.
Carisbrook had a test against the Springboks in 2005, but was then on the outer for two years.
New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew said the union recognised progress had been made on the new stadium in Dunedin, so had rewarded the city with a test.
The sell-out this year also helped.
"We still see Dunedin as a viable test option at this stage, with some progress being made with the new stadium."
France had initially agreed to send its best team and finish its club competition by the end of May.
But it had run into problems, as the Stade de France stadium was booked on May 31, where it was hoped to play the club final.
Contractual commitments meant the final had to be played at this ground.
Tew said French officials wanted to play the game the following week, and then immediately fly the players in the final to New Zealand to play in the first test.
The players not in the final would already be in New Zealand.
Tew said the NZRU was seeking to clarify that, and arrangements for the players.
Many northern hemisphere teams had sent under strength teams south in recent years, and international rugby bosses wanted to stamp that out.
Carisbrook Stadium Trust chairman Malcolm Farry said the New Zealand union had been supportive of the stadium project.
The trust was making good progress and bringing this test to the city would help the stadium.
Farry said the stadium was in its final design phases, and the trust had advertised for registrations of interest from contractors.
Christchurch appears to be the big loser from test allocation, getting a test against lightweight Italy.
AMI Stadium has a reduced capacity as a major new stand is built, and the ground struggled to sell out in its only test this year, against England.
