Luke McAlister is an injury worry for the All Blacks ahead of the Tri-Nations © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Sir Graham Henry | Luke McAlister

Tournaments/Tours: Rugby World Cup | Tri Nations

Teams: New Zealand

A back injury has prevented Luke McAlister from playing club rugby for a second weekend, leaving question marks over his fitness ahead of the All Blacks' opening Tri-Nations Test against Australia on Saturday.

McAlister is in line to start the Bledisloe Cup opener at Eden Park if he is able to prove his fitness, however a back strain has sidelined him from any rugby since he turned in a mixed performance in the All Blacks' Test win over Italy at Christchurch two weeks ago.

He took no part in this week's two-day All Blacks camp in Wellington while two intended matches for his North Harbour club Silverdale have fallen through.

On Thursday All Blacks coach Graham Henry rated McAlister a fifty percent chance of playing for his club yesterday but at that stage felt the 25-year-old was a likely Test starter either way.

Henry's other fly-half option, Stephen Donald, will definitely miss the test with a hamstring injury. If McAlister doesn't play, scrum-half Piri Weepu shapes as the most likely solution to wear No.10 at Eden Park. Weepu has won his 32 Test caps at scrum-half but excelled at fly-half for Wellington in the Air New Zealand Cup in 2008 and is an able goal-kicker.

Meanwhile, a handful of other All Blacks squad members played for their clubs yesterday, including returning loose forwards Richie McCaw and Rodney So'oialo, who played their first games for seven weeks. Captain McCaw was happy with how his injured knee came through 45 minutes for his Christchurch club.

"The knee was really, really good, it was probably just the lungs that were the only thing," McCaw said. "I got the ball in hand a wee bit, made a few tackles. That was what I was after. It was nice to have a hit-out going into next weekend and good to have a run with the boys."

The Wallabies will be in buoyant mood after defeating Italy and France during their first Tests of the season, although they will have to deal with the psychological burden of their awful record in Auckland. An Australian side has not won at Eden Park since 1986, although flanker David Pocock believes his coach, former New Zealand international Robbie Deans, has what it takes to get the Wallabies that elusive win.

"He's outstanding. I don't know how New Zealand let him go. He's such a good coach and it's a great environment there," he said. "You're off to training and it's always something new and you feel like you're improving the whole time. It's pretty exciting."