Dummies guide to the All Blacks' World Cup announcement

All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen. Photo / Brett Phibbs

All you need to know about the All Blacks' World Cup announcement.

When/where: The squad is announced on Sunday 6.30pm, at the Grand Hall, Parliament Buildings, Wellington

How to follow: Live on Sky Sport, Radio Sport and allblacks.com

The selectors: Coach Steve Hansen, assistant coach Ian Foster, dedicated selector Grant Fox.
The deadline: All squads must be finalised by Monday and many have already been named.
The size: The limit is 31 players. The All Blacks are set to name 17 forwards and 14 backs.

What the others nations are doing: Most countries will use the 17/14 split but Samoa has named 18 forwards and Welsh coach Warren Gatland is among those considering this. Compromises are needed, whatever the decision. Australia dropped a bombshell by naming only two specialist hookers, the sort of decision coaches must hate to make. They are training up prop Scott Sio as a back up hooker.

Some All Black debates: Whether to take three or four locks (and thus five or six loose forwards), two or three halfbacks, three or four first five-eighths (includes utilities Beauden Barrett and Colin Slade). In the case of the locks, the lack of an outstanding number four option means a loosie like veteran Jerome Kaino might be used to back up the top three. The All Blacks had a squad of 25 for the first World Cup in 1987, and Bruce Deans and Frano Botica didn't play a game. The limit was 30 at the last tournament.

What to watch out for: There is unlikely to be a really controversial omissions. If Waisake Naholo makes it after fracturing a leg in June, universal attention will focus on the traditional Fijian healing methods which he claims have enabled the speedy recovery.

Injuries: Any players replaced during the tournament cannot return to the squad, and the replacements have a stand down period of 48 hours before they can take the field. The most famous mid-tournament replacement in the history of the world (yes, this is a very New Zealand point of view) is Stephen Donald, who kicked the vital World Cup final goal in 2011 after all the initial No. 10s were injured.