Sean Maitland and Blair Cowan will get that surreal and unfamiliar feeling of watching the haka but not being able to respond as the All Blacks land at BT Murrayfield.
Scotland’s two New Zealand-born stars are no strangers to the famous Maori challenge they performed several haka growing up in their original homeland.
Only today against New Zealand in the second viagogo Autumn Test they’ll have to stand still and soak up the challenge of Ka Mate with their team-mates rather than do a response of their own.
“It’s New Zealand tradition, especially with the big rugby schools,” said Cowan, who grew up in Wellington, son of a Scottish mother.
“We each have our different haka and when it comes to traditional matches against rival colleges then you challenge each other.”
Maitland will be looking for his old Crusaders team-mate Ryan Crotty as the All Blacks perform the pre-match ritual.
“It’s going to be crazy, especially having had multi-heritage growing up,” he said. “I did it plenty times myself so it’s nothing new, but it’ll be different to taste it from the other side and I’ve been talking to the guys who experienced it before.
“They are laying the challenge down to us, and we’ve got to accept it and feed off it.
“I will not be doing anything silly, no smiling or laughing. I think I’ll just try to pick out “Crotts” and stare at him.”
Neither of the pair has any mixed emotions about playing for their adopted country, satisfied that they made the right decision to seek their future in Europe.
Maitland said; “I definitely have no regrets. I enjoyed my five years with the Crusaders, we won a Super Rugby championship and I played with some awesome players.
“But since my decision to come over here I’ve had no regrets at all.
“Playing for Scotland and representing my family over here and making the Lions it’s been a whirlwind.
“There’s no divided loyalties, family comes first. There’s going to be a big number of my “weegie” family there, it’s going to be extra special.”
Cowan, meanwhile, has had his mum here for two weeks, and earlier this week he took her back to the small Argyll village were she was born, Blairmore.
“We hired a car and drove up there, it’s so nice to go back and see your family roots, the house where my mum was born and grew up,” he said.
“I’d been up before and the locals are so friendly. It’s just a small village, but it was good to go back.”
For the openside, this is the culmination of all he had hoped for when he left New Zealand for London Irish.
“It’s been at the back of my mind for some time that there could be this opportunity,” he said. “To play the best of the best at a sold out BT Murrayfield it’s something that took a long time to get to, but when I got a sniff that it was possible, I was desperate for it.”
Like Maitland, he knows a few of the current All Blacks from club and age group rugby back home.
“I played a lot of rugby with Victor Vito growing up, he was as big in Under-16s as he is now. Dan Coles and Jeremy Thrush as well.
“The world of rugby is a small community, let alone New Zealand, but we’ll catch up properly after the game.”
Maitland is still good friends with the Crusaders in the All Black team, including the returning Dan Carter.
“How do you deal with Dan? Just shut down his space, don’t give him time on the ball,” said the wing.
“Admittedly when he is playing he always looks like he always has time, so the main message would be to shut his space down really quickly.
“He always has many options with what he can do off his left peg. He has a great fend and a good show and go as well. We all know what he can do with the ball, so we just have to shut his time and space down.”
Carter and McCaw could be playing because this could be the last time either will see Murrayfield, but along with Ben Smith they’re the only All Blacks who you would consider as first choice selections in the New Zealand starting XV.
It’s certainly not as strong as team as that which routed the USA in Chicago a fortnight ago.
On that occasion the requirements of the All Blacks sponsors AIG demanded that some of the top names play.
But if Scots are getting upset about being behind the US Eagles in the pecking order for the full All Black experience, we shouldn’t be.
The average scoreline of 44-10 since the Millennium shows that the gap has widened in recent times.
The last time they put out a full XV against us at Murrayfield it was 49-3, one-way traffic, virtually unopposed training.
However, there’s a quiet determination to surprise New Zealand and still that feeling, augmented by the first hour last week, that under the no-nonsense leadership of Vern Cotter, we’re finally headed decisively in the right direction.
Does this mean the first win in 109 years against the Mighty Blacks?
Probably not, especially when you look at the All Black bench ready to ride to the rescue if things don’t go to their deliberately detailed plan.
But most of the capacity crowd at BT Murrayfield will grudgingly take further confirmation of advance as decent consolation. The proper battles for Scotland’s credibility in the world game lie ahead.