Sam Cane will captain a New Zealand side that shows 12 changes from the one that beat Argentina for Thursday's Rugby World Cup match against Namibia at the Olympic Stadium.
The 23-year-old openside flanker will captain the All Blacks for the first time. He is the 67th player to captain New Zealand and the fifth youngest, edging the man he replaces in the team and the normal All Blacks leader Richie McCaw by two months.
A Former New Zealand Under-20 captain in 2011 Cane admitted, after telling his parents over breakfast this morning: “It’s a great honour. It took me by surprise a bit. Making your debut for the All Blacks is a massive honour but to lead your country out stands above that; hugely honoured and quite excited.”
The flanker conceded that the captaincy took him by surprise. “I was thinking it would be great to get a start. He (head coach Steve Hansen) said you will be playing and you’ll be captain. It took me back a little bit. Most of the boys came up and said, ‘congrats.’ I grew up dreaming of being an All Black and a great All Black.”
The three players that remain from the last day are wings Julian Savea and Nehe Milner-Skudder and secondrow Sam Whitelock, although six of the seven players on the bench either started or came on against the Pumas at Wembley. In fact the replacements have more caps for the starting 15.
New Zealand head coach Steve Hansen said: "It's a very special moment for the 23-year-old Sam Cane who will captain the All Blacks for the first time. He is in our leadership group, is hugely respected by everyone, is a fierce and fearless player and is someone who has the potential of being a long-term captain of the All Blacks in the future.
“He’s (Cane) a good leader. He’s got a reasonably tricky job in the squad following the skipper. He has got a good rugby brain, he’s happy to voice his opinion and lead by example. We thought we would look to the future and give someone who we believe in a shot.”
“At the completion of this match 30 of the 31 players in our squad will have experienced time in the middle of the park which will give us a good foundation base going forward and which was always part of our planning pretournament. It’s not their time to step-up.
"Five of our team will also be playing their first Rugby World Cup match (codie Taylor, Luke Romano, Liam Messam, Tawera Kerr-Barlow and Malakai Fekitoa) so it'll be a significant moment for them and their families."
The only player who won’t have seen game time is Waisake Naholo, who continues his rehabilitation from the broken bone in his leg.
New Zealand: C Slade; N Milner-Skudder, M Fekitoa, S B Williams, J Savea; B Barrett, TJ Perenara; B Franks, C Taylor, C Faumuina; L Romano, S Whitlock; L Messam, S Cane (capt). V Vito. Replacements: K Mealamu, W Crockett, T Woodcock, K Read, R McCaw, T Kerr-Barlow, M Nonu, B Smith.
