Assistants Luciano Trani and Jonathan Gould will be pitchside for Saturday's clash, leaving Herbert to assess the performance of his Phoenix players from the stands at Waikato Stadium.

The All Whites boss is more interested in the performance of his trialling players than his regulars.

"I've asked Luc and Gouldy to play the players that have been training here in Wellington, those guys who have been fulltime with the Phoenix for the past couple of months," Herbert said.

"There are a couple of players specifically I want to watch - especially the triallists - because it's an important time for us to identify where we are and what particular areas we may need to concentrate on in terms of recruitment."

Herbert said he was more interested in the team's performance as he keeps one eye on the workload of some of his World Cup stars.

"I'm looking for a good competitive game but it's less about the result than seeing where we sit in the broader scheme of things before the season starts in August," he said.

"There needs to be some balance for some of the international players to make sure they're ready for the start of the season."

The full squad, including  Mark Paston, Leo Bertos, Ben Sigmund, Tony Lochhead and Tim Brown returning from South Africa, will make the trip to Hamilton.

Wellington's squad is largely unchanged from last season but new addition Dylan Macallister has made an impression in Phoenix's warm up matches.

Herbery added: "Dylan's looked very good and is certainly the type of player the club's been looking for in terms of a target man up front.

"I'll be monitoring things closely to see how Dylan, Chris [Greenacre] and Paul [Ifill] can combine in that front third."

Young Wanganui defender James Musa is also a new member of the squad.

Herbert hopes the club will attract a big crowd for its first-ever game in Hamilton as it looks to capitalise on New Zealand's performance at the World Cup.