Stay cool, McCaw warns All Blacks

Richie McCaw

SUN CITY, South Africa - Richie McCaw will hurl himself into one final rugby test before a deserved month-long break, urging his teammates to keep their cool if faced with Springboks provocation.

The All Blacks captain leads them onto Royal Bafokeng Stadium near Rustenberg early tomorrow (1am NZT) as short-priced favourites, shooting for their ninth win of the season and 16th in a row -- one short of the record winning streak of coach Fred Allen's team of the 1960s.

It's been a rare case this week in South Africa's rugby media that it's not a question of who wins, but how much the All Blacks win by -- almost unheard of for a test in the Republic.

Coach Jake White has reshuffled his side and signalled at a more open, running game as they try to avert a five-match losing streak.

If the All Blacks assert some early dominance there could be fireworks from the frustrated Boks, with several scuffles punctuating last weekend's 45-26 win by the All Blacks in Pretoria.

All Blacks lock Ali Williams and Springboks captain John Smit were both cited but escaped penalty.

"The key is to stay focused on what you're there for. If you get pulled into other stuff you forget about playing. If there's any stuff like that you just rely on the referee to deal with it," McCaw said.

England's Chris White, who controlled the Bledisloe Cup test in Auckland a fortnight ago, has the whistle again.

The unbreakable McCaw has led the All Blacks in eight of their nine tests this year and would appear a shoo-in for the International Rugby Board's (IRB) player of the year award at year's end.

McCaw allayed any fears he was running on empty after a low-key, relaxing buildup in Sun City's luxury this week.

"It's been all about keeping the guys fresh this week and all the guys are looking forward to the game, especially the guys who haven't played for a while like Aaron Mauger who's jumping out of his skin to get out there, and same with Carl Hayman," McCaw said.

Coach Graham Henry said the All Blacks' now-habitual sluggish starts, which saw the hosts lead 11-3 early in last weekend's match, were a big focus this week.

"Teams we play, it's understandable they're pretty fizzed up in the first 10-15 minutes and we try to absorb that emotion from the opposition. We haven't done it as well as we'd hoped, we seem to climb our way out of it as the game goes on," Henry said.

"We've taken time to get that ascendancy, it would be nice to do it from the start."

If the All Blacks can quell the desperate Springboks early there could be fireworks as they look to throw the ball around and give Fijian flyers Joe Rokocoko and Sitiveni Sivivatu space.

Henry was glowing in praise of his team, saying they hadn't dropped their standards despite sealing the title a fortnight ago, and were keen to finish on a high note in their ninth test in 12 weeks before building for the November tour of Europe.

"If you'd said 12 weeks ago, going into the final game we'll be undefeated and have won the Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations, we would have said 'thanks very much'.

"The boys have shown superb character and tenacity, all those things about courage and played pretty well most of the time... I don't think we could expect much more."

The impressive 39,000-capacity soccer/athletics stadium hosts its first big rugby test and had a makeshift look to it today, with large astroturf patches in the in-goal areas and within 1m of the touchlines.

But Henry said he didn't have any concerns about player safety.

- NZPA