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'Bigger challenge awaits us'

Adnaan Mohamed

Wellington – The All Black captain Richie McCaw believes that their challenge is going to be bigger when they take on the Springboks in the second Tri-Nations Test at the Westpac-stadium on Saturday.

The All Blacks waited 301 days to avenge their defeat at the hands of the Springboks in Hamilton last year. Now they only have seven days before they tackle the Tri-Nations champions again on Saturday.

McCaw believes it’s completely different dynamics.

“The reality is that the team we are going to play against is going to be so much better this week.  There is no doubt about that,” he said at the All Black hotel on Tuesday.

“The challenge is that because things went well we don’t expect things to be the same this week.  There will be periods in the game that will be harder than last week.

“But we will make sure we have the same intensity.  The good thing about last week is that we were all on the same page. We knew what we were doing and we executed pretty well. There is absolutely no reason why we can’t repeat that performance.
 
The All Black captain says it’s easy to do it once but it is more difficult to do it week after week.

“I have been in Super 14 teams where you to try to keep the intensity levels up. You have expectations from yourself and from the team.

It’s easier when you are under pressure to perform once. But regardless of what happens you have to go out there and do it again.

He believes the difference between the two top sides in the world is very small. 

“The team that can do the job consistently is the one that can stay at the top the longest.  It is also important for the team and not individuals to play well every week.”

McCaw says the senior players and the coaches have open debates on how they can improve their performance.

“We are certainly not being told all the time what we need to do. Once we’ve made a decision we go on to do it. There is not one person that has to do everything. The responsibility remains shared. 

“There are still bits and pieces that we need to work on that didn’t go our way last week.  The key will be to keep the intensity the same and not let it slip.  We also need to tweak a few things to make us even better. We can’t allow ourselves to slip from the benchmark we set last week,” warned.
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