Steve Hansen has already pencilled in his starting New Zealand side to face Argentina in their opening Rugby World Cup fixtures at Wembley on September 20, injuries permitting, with the All Blacks coach saying he will then name a vastly different XV to face world No.20 Namibia after his team's tightest fixture turnaround in 20 years.

"Argentina are one of the key games of the pool so we'll try to put as many of our best players out there that we can," Hansen said. "We've got a pretty good idea who we're going to start. We've still got to play a game four days later so some of them might have to back up - probably two or three - and then we'll get the rest of them on the park."

Waisake Naholo is the only player likely to miss both games, the winger scheduled to return from his broken leg in New Zealand's third pool game, against Georgia.

New Zealand last played Test matches in a four-day period at the more condensed 1995 World Cup, when they did so twice in pool fixtures against Ireland, Wales and Japan. Their record short turnaround is three days, between their 1991 semi-final loss to Australia and third-fourth play-off win over Scotland. Eight other nations will face four-day gaps during the pool phase, including title hopefuls South Africa, Australia and France.

Hansen, meanwhile, said the pool phase remained the All Blacks' focus, with the quarter-finals onward regarded as a separate bridge to cross. But he said the knockout phase of the tournament was the only time in Test rugby that a team knew they were playing a rival giving 100% as the World Cup had become such a central plank in the calendar that most teams spent much of the intervening years working on development.

Aaron Smith passes to Nehe Milner-Skudder during a New Zealand All Blacks training session © Getty Images

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"You know everyone you're playing is up for it, whereas sometimes I wonder between World Cups how other nations are driving their bus," Hansen said. "Whether they're mucking around or whether they're really serious about what they're doing at that time. For us, the pressure at a World Cup is no greater than it normally is. It's just a bigger box of chocolates at the end of it."

That said, Hansen acknowledged the controversial quarter-final loss to France at Cardiff in 2007 would provide ample motivation when the knockout phase begins.

"No one's forgotten 2007," he said. ""It's a great reminder to all of us that if you don't step up, you go home. We'll earn the right to get there first and then we'll deal with what comes after that."