London - Flanker Sam Cane will captain New Zealand for the first time when the All Blacks meet Rugby World Cup Pool C minnows Namibia at the Olympic Stadium on Thursday as coach Steve Hansen made 12 changes from the side that beat Argentina.
Only lock Sam Whitelock and wingers Julian Savea and Nehe Milner-Skudder remain from the team that fought back to beat the Pumas 26-16 on Sunday.
The 23-year-old Cane, who has played 25 matches for his country but made only 11 starts as Richie McCaw held down the openside flanker berth, came on as a replacement on Sunday to score the All Blacks' second try.
“It's a very special moment for Sam,” Hansen told reporters. “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 Under-20 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.”
Sonny Bill Williams, who also played a major part in steadying the ship for a nervous-looking New Zealand on Sunday as a second-half substitute, starts on Thursday in a powerful midfield combination alongside Malakai Fekitoa.
McCaw, Tony Woodcock and Keven Mealamu, each with well over 100 caps to their name, are on a bench that boasts a remarkable 660 test caps' worth of experience. The 23-man squad has a combined total of 1,061 caps.
If McCaw comes on as a replacement, it will be his 18th Rugby World Cup appearance, breaking the record of 17 he shares with former All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick.
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 and they will be pumped up.
Starting scrumhalf TJ Perenara echoed that after watching Japan beat South Africa last Saturday.
“A lot of the guys watched that game when and saw what a World Cup can do,” he said.
“Everyone plays above themselves and I think it's a great lesson for maybe the better teams in the competition not to take anyone too lightly.”
Team: 1-Ben Franks, 2-Codie Taylor, 3-Charlie Faumuina, 4-Luke Romano, 5-Sam Whitelock, 6-Liam Messam, 7-Sam Cane (captain), 8-Victor Vito; 9-TJ Perenara, 10-Beauden Barrett, 11-Julian Savea, 12-Sonny Bill Williams, 13-Malakai Fekitoa, 14-Nehe Milner-Skudder, 15-Colin Slade
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 – Reuters