All Blacks not peaking too early: McCaw - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

All Blacks not peaking too early: McCaw

By Adrian Warren 07/09/2010 07:43:57 PM Comments (0)

New Zealand captain Richie McCaw is adamant his rampaging All Blacks aren't repeating their old trick of peaking a year out from the World Cup.

The all conquering New Zealanders have already clinched the Tri-Nations tournament even before their final fixture against Australia at Sydney's ANZ Stadium on Saturday.

The All Blacks are on a 14 Test winning streak having taken out their inbound Tests against Ireland and Wales earlier in the year, in addition to triumphing in all six matches of their 2009 Spring tour.

It's an all too familiar story for New Zealand rugby followers, who have been used to their team looking almost unbeatable the year before the World Cup, only to stumble in the knockout stages of the prestigious tournament.

Openside flanker McCaw was absolutely convinced the All Blacks weren't already approaching their peak and still had significant room for improvement before kicking off the 2011 World Cup at home against Tonga in Auckland on September 9.

"We don't think about that," McCaw told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.

"You only peak when you think you can't get any better.

"It feels like a youngish team. I feel at the moment there's a lot of room for improvement and there's room to get better.

"As long as you keep having that attitude, you are not going to peak. If you think you're playing as best you can that's only as good as you are going to get.

"There's 12 months (to the World Cup) and one week in rugby is a long time to change things and you've got to keep looking to improve."

New Zealand have won nine straight against Australia, but McCaw anticipated the Wallabies would go into Saturday's match boosted by their dramatic win over South Africa last weekend.

The New Zealand skipper said he didn't notice a great deal of difference between Australia's performance in Bloemfontein and their last match against New Zealand in Christchurch.

"Perhaps they just got a bit of confidence with some of the things they were doing, a few passes sticking is sometimes the difference," McCaw said.

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