All Blacks have everything covered

London - New Zealand are confident they have left nothing out of their preparations for the defence of their Rugby World Cup title, flyhalf Dan Carter said on Thursday.

About to begin his fourth World Cup, Carter is hoping to exit the international stage on a high after a successful return to form following various injury setbacks.

"I've experienced a few different preparations and when you get to a World Cup, what you want to know is that you haven't left any stone unturned and you don't want to be to be looking back at what things you would have done differently," he told Reuters in an interview.

"There's nothing that I can think of (that has been left out) so we're really happy with the preparation and have that excitement in the air and the whole squad are ready to get into it"

New Zealand begin the defence of the crown they won on home soil in 2011, against Argentina in Pool C on Sunday at Wembley.

"It's going to be a really tough match first up. We played Argentina earlier in the year and they're quality opposition. We're wanting to start this tournament on the right note with the win but we'll have to play extremely well in order to do that."

New Zealand beat Argentina 39-18 in Christchurch in July in the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship.

"This will be completely different. The World Cup brings a whole new challenge.

"Argentina are going to be at the peak of their powers, they're going to be in good form and they had some good success against South Africa after we played them earlier in the year so they're going to come into this game with a lot of confidence," Carter added.