All Blacks: Chabal senses another victory

The All Blacks have undergone more psychological scarring and hard man Sebastien Chabal reckons they could be primed for a third straight loss to his French team in Wellington on Saturday.

Saturday's 27-22 result at Carisbrook will have drained the confidence of the New Zealand players, Chabal said, noting how it followed in the wake of the 20-18 World Cup quarter-final defeat at Cardiff 20 months ago.

When asked if a hat-trick was in their sights, Chabal said the All Blacks could never be written off but that France held a significant mental edge going into the second test at Westpac Stadium.

"Maybe now they will start to doubt," the hirsute 31-year-old said.

"Next week if we can stay in the game in the first 30 minutes, I think they will start to doubt. If we play 100 per cent and we don't make too many mistakes, we can win."

As he did at Cardiff, Chabal made his impact off the reserve bench but he saw enough from the sideline early in the test to convince him the new-look All Blacks were vulnerable.

"I was quite happy because the pack played really aggressively and I think that was the key for us winning," he said.

"We won a lot of the contact area and the All Blacks, we could see in their eyes that they didn't know what to do and they started to doubt.

"I think we were mentally stronger than them after the first 30 minutes."

Predicting French rugby performances is always treacherous. Such is their attitude, previous tourists may have been satisfied with an upset triumph such as Saturday night's but Chabal insisted that wouldn't be the case this week, nor in the one-off test against Australia a week later.

"The tour is not finished. Our confidence is up, it's good for us," he said.

"We will play with our heart and with passion and everything can happen."

Chabal said victory couldn't be compared to Cardiff, which carried more meaning, but snatching a rare victory on New Zealand soil was something to savour.

"Every win is good, but the All Blacks in New Zealand, you don't do that every week. It's massive."

- NZPA