Sam Cane to captain All Blacks against Namibia
Last Updated: 24/09/15 3:06pm
Sam Cane will become the fifth youngest New Zealand captain of all time when he leads the All Blacks against Namibia in their clash at the Olympic Stadium on Thursday.
Openside flanker Cane, 23, has been given the armband for the first time, with regular captain Richie McCaw starting the game on the bench for the Rugby World Cup Pool C clash.
Coach Steve Hansen has named a much-changed side from the XV that battled past Argentina in their opening match, giving most of his big guns a breather.
There are 12 changes, with only wings Nehe Milner-Skudder and Julian Savea remaining, along with lock Sam Whitelock.
The starters include centre Sonny Bill Williams, flanker Liam Messam and No 8 Victor Vito, while a powerful replacements' bench features regular skipper McCaw, No 8 Kieran Read and centre Ma'a Nonu.
With McCaw, hooker Keven Mealamu and prop Tony Woodcock on bench duty, it means that New Zealand have three cap centurions among their substitutes, which is a World Cup record.
Five players - Codie Taylor, Luke Romano, Messam, Tawera Kerr-Barlow and Malakai Fekitoa - will play in their first World Cup matches.
Hansen said: "It's a very special moment for Sam. He is a good leader and the most important part of leadership is playing well.
"He's never played poorly for the All Blacks and he's got a reasonably difficult job following the skipper. We could have chose someone else but we thought we'd look to the future - he's someone we believe in a lot."
Cane, a member of the 2011 U20 World Cup-winning side, played Super Rugby for the Chiefs as a teenager and made his New Zealand senior debut in 2012.
"With the short turnaround I was thinking it would be great to get a start so it took me back a little bit when Steve told me I was going to be captain," he said.
"But of course I'm hugely honoured to be asked to do it."
New Zealand are expected to run up a huge score against the tournament's lowest-ranked team but Hansen said there would be much his team could gain from the match.
"We want to get out there and execute our game," he said. "Namibia will have taken a lot of heart out of what happened at Brighton [Japan's shock win against South Africa] and they will be pumped up."
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, 1 Ben Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 4 Luke Romano, 5 Sam Whitelock, 6 Liam Messam, 7 Sam Cane, 8 Victor Vito.
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.
Namibia: 15 Johan Tromp, 14 David Philander, 13 JC Greyling, 12 Johan Deysel, 11 Conrad Marais, 10 Theuns Kotze, 9 Eugene Jantjies; 1 Jaco Engels, 2 Torsten van Jaarsveld, 3 Johannes Coetzee, 4 Tjiuee Uanivi, 5 Pieter-Jan van Lill, 6 Jacques Burger (c), 7 Tinus du Plessis, 8 Leneve Damens.
Replacements: 16 Louis van der Westhuizen, 17 Casper Viviers, 18 Raoul Larson, 19 Renaldo Bothma, 20 Janco Venter, 21 Rohan Kitshoff, 22 Eneill Buitendag, 23 Chrysander Botha.
