Warren Gatland believes Johnny Sexton has his "mojo" back and can now fight for selection for the British and Irish Lions' first Test against New Zealand.
Gatland and the Lions continue to remain coy over the chances of Sexton and Owen Farrell forming a playmaking duo at out-half and inside centre for the first Test on 24 June.
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Ben Te'o will take the 12 shirt for Saturday's Maori All Blacks clash in Rotorua (8.35am, live on RTÉ Radio and live blog on rte.ie) with Sexton starting at 10.
Sexton and Farrell joined forces to fine effect in the 12-3 win over the Crusaders after Jonathan Davies' head injury, but the combination will not be back on display this weekend after Farrell withdrew from the bench with a thigh injury that now threatens his participation next week altogether.
"Johnny needs more rugby and we're building on that," said Gatland of Sexton.
"He was really good off the bench against the Crusaders the other day and the combination of 10 and 12 was pretty seamless.
"He was just down a little on confidence but he's got a bit of his mojo back, and we wanted to give him a start against the Maori."
Sexton arrived on tour in New Zealand with just three Leinster appearances since January under his belt, owing to a string of niggling problems.
The gritty out-half struggled in the disjointed tour-opening 13-7 win over the Provincial Barbarians - but hit back to something approaching top form against the Crusaders.
Sexton replaced Davies midway through the first half in Christchurch and looked immediately at ease with Farrell outside him at 12.
Gatland believes that run-out has settled Leinster star Sexton back into his natural rhythm and the Lions boss admitted he may pair up with Farrell again at some point in Rotorua.
Having named Farrell on the bench, Gatland insisted the Lions are still trying to keep the All Blacks guessing, but any hope of seeing the Sexton-Farrell axis once more disappeared when the Saracens playmaker was ruled out with quadriceps strain.
"Owen Farrell has suffered a grade one quadriceps strain in training and has been ruled out of the British and Irish Lions match against the Maori All Blacks on Saturday evening," read a Lions statement.
"The England and Saracens playmaker will be replaced on the bench by Wales fly-half Dan Biggar."
Wales star Leigh Halfpenny will start at full-back on Saturday in prime position to nail down the 15 shirt for the Test opening.
But Gatland has challenged the Toulon flyer to hit his attacking best in order to force his way into the Test line-up.
"It's an opportunity as well for him to show what experience he has got," said Gatland.
"His counter-attacking and scoring tries has improved significantly, that's kind of what we need from a 15.
"We know how strong he is defensively, but it's the attacking threat we're looking for him to add to us on Saturday."
