All Blacks: I don't want to be a selector - McCaw

Richie McCaw. Photo / Getty Images

All Black captain Richie McCaw has no wish to be included on the selection panel in the All Black management shake-up.

He does not want to emulate Black Caps skipper Daniel Vettori who has been elevated to national selector in the country's cricket team.

"If I have a strong opinion one way or the other I feel I can go and talk to them about it but that's as far as it goes," McCaw said yesterday after his side's first practice to set the scene for their end-of-year tour.

He had no idea about the make-up of the side which would be sent out to play the Wallabies in Tokyo in the October 31 start to the tour.

"I like to leave that up to the selectors," he said.

The task this week for the All Blacks would be to start bedding in team ideas, working on tactics and patterns they would use throughout the trip. "I think it will be great. ... the excitement in the group is already apparent," he said.

McCaw dismissed a suggestion that the players decided how the All Blacks would play their last test against the Wallabies in Wellington after mixed results in their previous eight outings.

"But we did simplify things a bit more with perhaps the players running the show," he conceded.

It had been a struggle during the Tri-Nations tournament but the All Blacks had regrouped this week with an extra spark about the challenges of a Northern Hemisphere tour.

"We have got to have a belief in the ability of these guys because they are all pretty good rugby players who have been around for a while, so we have to make sure we believe in what we are doing," McCaw said.

"You have got to be confident in what you are doing. I think excitement is probably more the chance to get out there and let us prove we are still a good team."

Northern Hemisphere sides always lifted for their tests against the All Blacks.