McCaw: No pressure on All Blacks to cap a perfect year

Richie McCaw claims there is no added pressure this week to go out on Sunday and cap off the perfect year against Ireland.

Barring an almighty choke or an incredible Irish performance, the All Blacks should complete a perfect Test season with victory at the Aviva this weekend.

As the New Zealand team stand on the cusp of a 14th Test win from as many matches, Richie McCaw also stands to be the first man to complete a "perfect double" of Test and provincial glory.

“I don’t know if there is any more pressure, every time the All Blacks take to the field there is a level of pressure there to perform and win, that’s no different this week,” McCaw said

He added, “If we can get the job done, it would be quite satisfying but you can’t get too ahead of yourself – the big thing is, we are preparing for a test match like we do every other one.”

Many commentators have said that the New Zealand pack will have been licking their lips reviewing Ireland’s woeful display against Australia – their second game under Joe Schmidt. McCaw knows the Irish will want to give a 100% improved account of themselves which he reckons has the recipe for a cracker of a match.

“The Irish team will have been hurting after what happened last week, but things have changed from the three tests we played against Ireland 12 months ago, so there is pressure there but I’m looking forward to it.” McCaw said.

Even though the All Blacks have come through the year unbeaten, they have recently played two very tight matches against England and France on this European tour. McCaw says the team has learned from those games.

“We perhaps didn’t perform as well as we would have liked over 80 minutes, but I’m pretty proud of the way the lads were able to absorb the pressure, strike when we had to and get the win because that’s what it’s all about.”

“There is quite a desire to get our performances right and prepare better so we can perform better for longer – sitting here, with one game to go on this tour, getting the chance to go unbeaten would be quite good.”

Win or lose, it will be the end of an incredibly long season for the All Blacks and the words complacency and fatigue have floated around the squad from the outside. Assistant coach Ian Foster said on Tuesday that if fatigue took hold it would be no excuse, but stressed that the squad are still very sharp.

McCaw, speaking yesterday at a kick-about with the Dublin hurlers and footballers, part of the new AIG sponsorship deal with Dublin GAA, carried the same message home.

“I think the guys are in pretty good shape right now – When you compare us now with the same time 12 months ago, I think we are in a much better place now than we were then.”

“I’ve only played half a year so I feel like I’m just getting going, but I think the rest of the guys are still pretty good,” McCaw said.