Attacking weapons Krisnan Inu and Issac Luke and power forward David Fa'alogo have been recalled for New Zealand's World Cup showdown with Papua New Guinea on the Gold Coast on Saturday night.

Inu comes into the Kiwi side for suspended Manly premiership centre Steve Matai while coach Stephen Kearney has promoted Setaimata Sa to his starting side for Sika Manu, who has been ruled out with an eye injury that required a visit to a specialist.

Matai had multiple scans and X-rays on shoulder, wrist and thumb injuries.

Luke, who made his Test debut against Australia earlier this year, has been preferred on the bench to Dene Halatau.

Kearney has shown faith in halves Thomas Leuluai and Benji Marshall who failed to click in the 30-6 loss to Australia last weekend.

There was speculation Leuluai may lose his No.7 jumper but Kearney obviously felt he was hamstrung behind a beaten pack which didn't have enough possession to go forward.

The former Kiwi international jumped to the defence of his forwards after they were outplayed by Australia's pensioner props Petero Civoniceva and Steve Price in the Kiwis' first World Cup outing.

The New Zealanders aren't saying it publicly but they missed the punch of retired veteran Ruben Wiki, injured captain Roy Asotasi and rampaging back-rowers Frank Pritchard (injured) and banished Sonny Bill Williams against the Kangaroos in Sydney.

New Zealand turned over far too much football to the world champions and their forwards spent a lot of the game trying to limit the charges of Civoniceva and Price.

The Kiwis believe they did exceptionally well to restrict Australia to 30 points given the mountain of defence they were forced to do because of their poor early ball security and ill-discipline.

"I thought our forward pack did a wonderful job the other night given the amount of tackling they had to do they really stood up," said Kearney.

"There are aspects we can improve and we'll be looking to do that this week.

"But I thought overall the forward group did a great job.

"The guys coming off the bench did a wonderful job for us and as a forward pack that's some real momentum to take into this weekend's game."

New Zealand will need to bounce back hard against Papua New Guinea who surprised everyone with their brave display against England in Townsville.

"From watching them play England we know they're going to be a very committed side and we are not on the Gold Coast for a holiday," said Kearney.

Team:

New Zealand: Lance Hohaia, Sam Perrett, Krisnan Inu, Jerome Ropati, Manu Vatuvei, Benji Marshall, Thomas Leuluai, Nathan Cayless (capt), Nathan Fien, Adam Blair, Simon Mannering, Setaimata Sa, Jeremy Smith. Interchange: Issac Luke, Greg Eastwood, Sam Rapira, David Fa'alogo.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP