July 15 (Reuters) - Winger Waisake Naholo will make his test debut for the All Blacks against Argentina in the opening Rugby Championship match in Christchurch on Friday.
The 24-year-old Naholo, the top try scorer in Super Rugby this year, comes onto the right wing for Steve Hansen's side, replacing George Moala who made his test debut against Samoa last week.
Hansen resisted making wholesale changes to the team who scraped to a 25-16 victory over Samoa despite the influx of 17 players from the Wellington Hurricanes and Otago Highlanders, who missed the Apia game because of the Super Rugby final.
Naholo, centre Ma'a Nonu and scrumhalf TJ Perenara were the only players from the Super Rugby final brought into the starting team for the match at Rugby League Park.
World Player of the Year Brodie Retallick has also shifted from the bench into the lineup in place of Sam Whitelock.
"We have a lot of respect for Argentina and what they bring and understand that we will have to improve our game quite considerably from our Samoan effort," Hansen said in a statement. "With that in mind, the selectors did not want to make too many changes.
"It's a fine balancing act between getting game time for those who need it, giving others the rest they may need, and giving ourselves an opportunity to see players and combinations in the heat of the test battle so we can make good selections going forward."
Canterbury Crusaders hooker Codie Taylor should also make his test debut at Rugby League Park off the bench.
Hansen said while the World Cup was now clearly in their sights, he wanted the team to focus on each of their three Rugby Championship clashes as they came up.
"There has been a lot of talk about the Rugby World Cup and so forth, but this test match is all about the here and now," he said.
"It's important that we get away to a really good start... as we will only be playing each other once this year and we only have this one home game.
"We will need to get points early if we are going to give ourselves a chance of winning the Championship."
New Zealand: 15-Israel Dagg, 14-Waisake Naholo, 13-Ma'a Nonu, 12-Sonny Bill Williams, 11-Charles Piutau, 10-Daniel Carter, 9-TJ Perenara, 8-Kieran Read, 7-Richie McCaw (captain), 6-Jerome Kaino, 5-Brodie Retallick, 4-Luke Romano, 3-Owen Franks, 2-Keven Mealamu, 1-Tony Woodcock
Replacements: 16-Codie Taylor, 17-Wyatt Crockett, 18-Nepo Laulala, 19-Jeremy Thrush, 20-Liam Messam, 21-Andy Ellis, 22-Colin Slade, 23-Ryan Crotty