Unheralded All Blacks flanker Chris Masoe gets a rare taste of the rugby big time when he starts on the blindside flank ahead of a resting Jerry Collins in Sunday's World Cup test against Scotland.

Veterans Reuben Thorne and Anton Oliver have also been handed starts in the forward pack while centre Conrad Smith and right winger Doug Howlett win key selection battles in what is close to the strongest New Zealand team.

Just three players who started in the 108-13 thrashing of Portugal in Lyon last weekend have been retained -- Masoe, Smith and lock Williams, who will become the only player to begin all three pool matches.

More significantly, there are only four changes from the side who opened the campaign with a 76-14 win over Italy in Marseille -- with Smith, Masoe, Thorne and Oliver introduced.

All of Masoe's eight previous starts have been on the openside flank but he will wear No 6 in a highly mobile loose forward trio alongside captain Richie McCaw and No 8 Rodney So'oialo.

Samoan-born Masoe has been regarded as an impact player and backup to McCaw since his debut two years ago.

His biggest starting assignment was probably against England at Twickenham when McCaw was injured on the 2005 Grand Slam tour.

Former captain Thorne will make his first appearance of the tournament at lock, having missed the opening two matches with a hamstring strain.

The absence of he and lock Keith Robinson, who is still battling a calf strain, has stretched the All Blacks' resources and coach Graham Henry was clearly keen to see Jack and Collins given a break after starting in each of the first two games.

While those two selections are about managing players' welfare, more significant could be Oliver's selection ahead of Keven Mealamu as the starting hooker.

In fact Mealamu, who is one cap short of 50 tests, hasn't even made the reserve bench, with that role filled by Andrew Hore.

It had appeared Mealamu was on track to regain the first-choice hooking role at this tournament, a position held down by Oliver for much of 2007.

However, Henry has gone back to his stronger scrummaging option this week, possibly in response to the rusty start to the tournament of the All Blacks scrum.

Carl Hayman will pack down at prop, despite missing some elements of training early this week with a bruised calf.

Out wide, Howlett and Sitiveni Sivivatu have again denied the claims of Joe Rokocoko, who looked electric in his two-try performance against Portugal.

Smith gets another crack at securing centre, with his main rival Isaia Toeava on the reserve bench.

The other centre option, Mils Muliaina, is out this week nursing a hamstring strain.

That, in turn, guaranteed Leon MacDonald the fullback berth and he will play his 50th test.

Yesterday McCaw said the team to face Scotland would nearly resemble the side earmarked for the quarterfinals onwards.

"I'm picking this week will be fairly close to it. A few injuries here and there might change things as we go on," he said.

"It's been the case for a while, there's quite a few positions in this team that are a bit of a flip of the coin in terms of who plays."

Scotland head coach Frank Hadden has made sweeping changes to his team but denies he has picked a reserve team.

He retains just two of the players who started Tuesday's 42-0 win over Romania.

Chris Paterson starts at stand-off after lining up on the wing in midweek, and Simon Webster slots in on the wing having been deployed at outside centre against Romania.

Prop Alasdair Dickinson and flanker John Barclay win their first caps as Hadden opts out of selecting his first-choice team against the World Cup favourites, apparently with one eye on the all-important Italy clash in Pool C on September 29.

Gloucester front-rower Dickinson was not in Scotland's original 30-man squad but was called up to replace Allan Jacobsen when the Edinburgh man was forced out of the tournament through injury.

Scott Murray, Scotland's most-capped player, captains the side and Chris Cusiter comes in for Mike Blair at scrum-half.

Andrew Henderson, scorer of a hat-trick of tries in the warm-up victory over Ireland last month, comes back into the side after recovering from a leg injury.

Despite the many changes, Hadden told scottishrugby.org, "I utterly reject the notion that this is a second-string, weakened or reserve Scotland team.

"It contains the best place-kicker in world rugby (Paterson), two British Lions, one of whom is Scotland's most-capped player, two of our most-respected and exciting backs; arguably the player who made the biggest impact in the 2006 autumn Tests and other players who have beaten South Africa, France, England Ireland and Wales in the international arena, combined with some fresh young talent.

"We have a squad of 30 highly professional, dedicated quality players and we compete in this tournament as a squad. Our mission has always been to qualify from the group stages and press on from there.

"The schedule we are being asked to fulfil by RWC involves us playing three games in 11 days.

"International rugby is a huge physical challenge and our aspirations are to progress as far as we can in this tournament and that has to be the over-riding priority in our selection for the games against New Zealand and Italy.

"We believe to get the best outcome for Scotland over the next two games that it's absolutely vital we play the freshest possible squad this weekend and the freshest possible squad against Italy.

"Had the Portugal and Romania games also fallen like Romania and New Zealand just five days apart we would have done exactly the same thing.''

Scotland: H Southwell (Edinburgh); N Walker (Ospreys), M Di Rollo (Toulouse), A Henderson (Glasgow Warriors), S Webster (Edinburgh); C Paterson (Gloucester), C Cusiter (Perpignan); A Dickinson (Gloucester), S Lawson (Sale), C Smith (Edinburgh), S MacLeod (Llanelli Scarlets), S Murray (unattached, captain), K Brown (Glasgow Warriors), J Barclay (Glasgow Warriors), D Callam (Edinburgh).

Replacements: Fergus Thomson (Glasgow Warriors), Gavin Kerr (Edinburgh), James Hamilton (Leicester), Allister Hogg (Edinburgh), Rory Lawson (Gloucester), Dan Parks (Glasgow Warriors), Rob Dewey (Ulster)

New Zealand: Leon MacDonald; Doug Howlett, Conrad Smith, Luke McAlister, Sitiveni Sivivatu; Dan Carter, Byron Kelleher; Rodney So'oialo, Richie McCaw (capt), Chris Masoe; Ali Williams, Reuben Thorne; Carl Hayman, Anton Oliver, Tony Woodcock

Replacements: Andrew Hore, Neemia Tialata, Chris Jack, Sione Lauaki, Brendon Leonard, Nick Evans, Isaia Toeava.