September 22, 2015
Rugby World Cup Lineups New Zealand v Namibia Sep 24, 2015
Doug Coil
September 24, 2015
New Zealand v Namibia, Pool C, The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, Kickoff 20:00 – 3pm ET
Referee: Romain Poite; Ass’t Ref: Craig Joubert, Mathieu Raynal; TV Match Official: George Ayoub
New Zealand comes into the match fresh off a 26-16 win over Argentina. They have made a team record 12 changes in their starters, with only Whitelock, Savea and Milner-Skudder starting again.
They are an experienced side with 668 test caps. However, they field a bench with Woodcock, Mealamu and McCaw each having over 100 test appearances. This is a new Rugby World Cup Record, which breaks the previous record of one. Richie McCaw’s next appearance in a Rugby World Cup match will be his 18th, which will establish a new record.
Namibia should have a tough time against New Zealand, but want to represent themselves well. Their starters have 299 caps.
Burger, Jantijies and du Plessis are playing in their third Rugby World Cup, equaling their team record. Burger and Jantijies have played in all 8 of the 2007 and 2011 RWC matches for Namibia.
New Zealand Ranked 1st: HC Steve Hansen Starters: 1 Ben Franks 2 Codie Taylor 3 Charlie Faumuina 4 Luke Romano 5 Samuel Whitelock 6 Liam Messam 7 Sam Cane (c) 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 (H) 17 Wyatt Crockett (P) 18 Tony Woodcock (P) 19 Kieran Read (8) 20 Richie McCaw (F) 21 Tawera Kerr-Barlow 22 Ma’a Nonu 23 Ben Smith
Namibia Ranked 20th: HC Lynn Howells Starters: 1 Jaco Engels 2 Torsten Van Jaarsveld 3 Johannes Coetzee 4 PJ Van Lill 5 Tjiuee Uanivi 6 Jacques Burger (c) 7 Tinus Du Plessis 8 Leneve Damens 9 Eugene Jantjies 10 Theuns Kotze 11 Conrad Marais 12 Johan Deysel 13 JC Greyling 14 David Philander 15 Johan Tromp Replacements: 16 Louis van der Westhuizen (H) 17 Casper Viviers (P) 18 Raoul Larson (P) 19 Renaldo Bothma (F) 20 Janco Venter (L) 21 Rohan Kitshoff (F) 22 Eneill Buitendag (SH) 23 Chrysander Botha (FB)
