Twelve changes from All Blacks; Planet Rugby

New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen has made 12 changes to his team to face Namibia in the Pool C clash at the Olympic Park on Thursday.

Only Sam Whitelock, Julian Savea and Nehe Milner-Skudder retain their position in the starting line-up that faced Argentina at Wembley last week.

TJ Perenara and Beauden Barrett are the half-back pairing while Sonny Bill Williams and Malakai Fekitoa start at centre, with Colin Slade at full-back.

Elsewhere there are starts for Victor Vito, Sam Cane, Liam Messam, Luke Romano, Charlie Faumuina, Codie Taylor and Ben Franks. Cane is captain.

If Richie McCaw comes on as a replacement, it will be his eighteenth RWC outing, breaking the record of seventeen he now shares with Sean Fitzpatrick.

There are 660 caps' worth of experience on the All Blacks' bench (average 83) and also three test centurions (Tony Woodcock, Keven Mealamu and McCaw).

Three of the All Blacks' replacement players have 100-plus Test caps, which is a record for a Rugby World Cup bench. Before this match, no team had ever named more than one centurion on their bench in a Rugby World Cup fixture.

New Zealand: 15 Colin Slade, 14 Nehe Milner-Skudder, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Victor Vito, 7 Sam Cane (c), 6 Liam Messam, 5 Samuel Whitelock, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ben Franks.
Replacements: 16 Keven Mealamu, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Tony Woodcock, 19 Kieran Read, 20 Richie McCaw, 21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 22 Ma'a Nonu, 23 Ben Smith.

Date: Thursday, September 24
Venue: The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London
Kick-off: 20:00 local (19:00 GMT)
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant referees: Craig Joubert (South Africa), Mathieu Raynal (France)
Television match official: George Ayoub (Australia)

It will be good to see some of these ABs get a start, the back line looks lethal

Avoid drawing any wrong conclusions JW without consulting me first.I am backing the wee abs to win as I hear the Namibians have injuries.

 You probably have your best center combo there but are too dumb to know it.

Beeno: glad to see you have emerged & are back with us
Photographic evidence of where Beeno has been

Cane is captain. I am looking forward to seeing Vito, Famuina and Codie get some serious game time. Apparently Kaino has a slight hamstring problem & will not start as planned. Too early to say only taking three locks was a mistake but Kaino was supposed to play lock in the game against Namibia.

 Yes H ansen had to strengthen his team JW. it was too close for comfort against the Argies.

 Beeno your lot lost to Japan, you no longer have the moral highground .

There should be a rule that fans who have a reptile as an avatar and whose team have not yet won at this RWC2015 should not be able to make comments. 

Go ahead.... kick a croc when he's down .

 Leave Beeno alone. Beeno is my friend.

 Beeno has declared he has no kiwi friends.
Really exciting line up Hakwa. Terrific that we can field such a team - i know we don't declare players as B team players but many of them are in fact that & they are still world class.

Hi JW, we need everyone to have game time - muscle memory and all that.