There may have been some hand-wringing over some of the All Blacks' selections for the Rugby World Cup squad, but the selectors have produced a squad with ample experience to compete on the biggest stage.
Analysis of all 20 of the Rugby World Cup squads has revealed that the AllBlacks have by far the most experience, with the squad combining for 1,484 test caps - 187 more than the next best test side.
Led by Richie McCaw (142 caps), Keven Mealamu (126), Tony Woodcock (115) and Dan Carter (106), the defending champions have an added 345 test caps from their triumph in 2011, where they came into the tournament with the second most caps behind South Africa.
Over eight sides have more than 1000 combined test caps, with South Africa in second and Australia in fourth, surprisingly seperated by Georgia, who mass 1,253 test caps amongst their 31-strong squad.
The squad surprisingly light on experience is England, who are 14th on the list with just 761 test caps, opting for a largely youthful squad for their World Cup on home soil.
1.New Zealand 1,484 caps 2. South Africa 1,297 3. Georgia 1,253 4. Australia 1,243 5. Italy 1,153 6. Romania 1,151 7. Ireland 1,024 8. Wales 1,013 9. Japan 984 10. France 979 11.Scotland 901 12.Argentina 845 13.Uruguay 833 14.England 761 15.Canada 673 16.Fiji 592 17.USA 552 18.Namibia 512 19.Tonga 501 20.Samoa 483
When it comes to having a strong core of players with 50 caps or more, Australia lead the way, with a large chunk of their predicted starting XV having plenty of top-level experience.
1. Australia 13 2. South Africa 11 3. Romania 11 4. New Zealand 10 5. Ireland 9 6. Wales 8 7. Italy 8 8. Georgia 6 9. France 6 10. Argentina 5 11. Japan 4 12. Scotland 4 13. England 3
