Foster: 'no room for complacency' as All Blacks come to Ireland

New Zealand's assistant coach Ian Foster says he and the squad are determined to finish their season on a high.

They come up against Ireland this weekend at the Aviva Stadium, having won their previous games against England, France and Japan.

Dan Carter is out of the game in Dublin while management are not yet ruling out Tony Woodcock's chances just yet.

Carter, having picked up his hundredth cap against England last week, was taken off after 27 minutes with an Achilles injury while Woodcock has a hamstring strain.

Commenting today on the health of the squad, Foster was pleased about how they are doing.

"It's always on your mind as a selector, you're trying to figure out where the team is at, also looking at the fatigue side versus freshness," he said. "We have an eight-day turnaround from the last game, we have let the first two day's go past and then review how guys have shaped up after."

The assistant coach has also fired out a warning against any type of over-cockiness or complacency as they head into their final game of 2013.

"All you have to do is go back 12 months where we didn't perform well on the last day so I don't think there is any room for complacency - there is no way you can use fatigue as an excuse but I think the unit is very fresh at the moment considering it's the middle of November."

"A lot of the guys have been managed well time-wise so when you look at it, we are in really good health and feeling strong, and with the great work of our medics we have everyone to chose from bar DC (Dan Carter) so all talk of complacency is out the window, we are quite determined about this week." Foster added.

Ireland will arrive in the Aviva this week looking to rid the hurt of the weekend, in which they were badly beaten against an average Australian outfit and Foster says teething problems under a new coach is nothing out of the ordinary and knows lessons will have been learned.

"I guess they are finding their feet under a new coaching regime, I thought they performed very well against Samoa so I thought they would be happy with that step forward but caught out against a fired up Australian side so they will learn some lessons." Foster said

He added "They are going through a period of change as they learn to adapt a game under the new coaches, they will have had one game they would have been happy with and one they wouldn't so they will have learned a hell of a lot from it."

That loss to the Aussies. coupled with humiliating defeat last summer in Hamilton, in which they lost to the All Blacks 60-0, my mean Joe Schmidt's men will be fired up for the visitors, and Foster is expecting nothing less.

"Ireland are a very aggressive and committed team, they like to get on the front foot and stop you from playing the game so were expecting a very typical but very aggressive Irish performance."