“It was a reflex thing”.

“It’s great to give someone an opportunity we have a lot of faith in”, the coach said.

Veteran back Juan Martín Hernández said Argentina had not been able to maintain the rhythm they established to control the match from midway through the first half until New Zealand’s first try in the 56th minute. A player only needs to get something wrong – not in a nasty way – such as going into the ruck the wrong way and they can be sin binned.

Creevy, who said before the tournament his dream was to lift the trophy, told reporters after the 26-16 defeat by New Zealand in their Pool D opener at Wembley on Sunday.

It was a different thing in the early hours of this morning as the All Blacks found themselves strongly tested by an Argentinian team that was really and truly up for it.

New Zealand meet Namibia in their second Pool C fixture on Thursday.

The All Blacks visited the Ngati Toa marae in Wellington on the eve of their departure for the World Cup in England, but they have so far been reluctant to talk about their new formation.

“It’s great for the game overall, I think it’s fantastic for the fans, for the sport”, he added, echoing the reaction from around the world – South Africa apart, where the headline “SA shamed by minnows Japan” was fairly representative of the country’s media verdict.

Hansen backed referee Wayne Barnes in showing the yellow cards.

Either Read or backrower Victor Vito will provide lock cover with the All Blacks including only three middle-rowers in their World Cup squad and Brodie Retallick rested for the Namibia match.

Sam Cane will become the fifth youngest All Black captain when he leads the side against Namibia, at 23. “We aspire to be better than what we were, we believe that we can compete against better Tier Two nations”.

Barrett will be first five-eighth and goalkicker for the first half while Slade is at fullback but both are likely to swap roles in the second spell.

In the final press conference before tomorrow’s match at London’s Olympic Stadium, Hansen said it was important the All Blacks focused on improving their performance from a few days ago against Argentina at Wembley Stadium. The interesting thing about the Pumas is that we’ve all been saying for a while that they’re going to knock teams over and be a threat.

“We need to hold the ball more rather than let it go which allowed them to maintain their attacking rhythm”.