RUGBY WORLD CUP TEAM NEWS:

New Zealand welcome back captain Richie McCaw and fly-half Dan Carter for the decisive World Cup Pool C match against Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday.

Both players sat out the 108-13 romp against Portugal and All Blacks coach Graeme Henry makes 12 changes in all.

Chris Masoe starts at number six in place of Jerry Collins, while Leon MacDonald plays at full-back.

Doug Howlett starts on the wing while Reuben Thorne plays in the second row, with Chris Jack on the bench.

Centre Conrad Smith, Masoe and lock Ali Williams are the only survivors from the Portugal game, which saw the tournament favourites run in 16 tries.

Lock Keith Robinson and full-back Mils Muliaina are currently unavailable because of injury.

However, New Zealand coach Graeme Henry expects Robinson to be fit for the final pool game against Romania on 29 September, and Muliaina is slowly returning to training after tweaking his hamstring against Portugal.

The winner of the match will be on course to top the group and All Blacks' coach Graeme Henry is not expecting an easy ride at Murrayfield.

"We expect our toughest match of the pool against Scotland. We're looking forward to it," said Henry.

"The test is well-timed for us, coming two weeks out from the quarter-finals.

"If we can play well against Scotland, we can build some momentum ahead of the knock-out round."

New Zealand;
MacDonald; Howlett, Smith, McAlister, Sivivatu; Carter, Kelleher; Woodcock, Oliver, Hayman, Thorne, Williams, Masoe, McCaw (capt), So'oialo.
Replacements:
Hore, Tialata, Jack, Lauaki, Leonard, Evans, Toeava.

Pool C Table
Team P W D L F A BP PTS
1 New Zealand 2 2 0 0 184 27 2 10
2 Scotland 2 2 0 0 98 10 2 10
3 Italy 3 2 0 1 69 99 0 8
4 Romania 2 0 0 2 18 66 1 1
5 Portugal 3 0 0 3 28 195 0 0