Richie McCaw expects any rustiness observed in his side's first two World Cup games to be gone come Saturday morning. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Richie McCaw expects any rustiness observed in his side's first two World Cup games to be gone come Saturday morning. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Richie McCaw says it's time to improve on the All Blacks' first two World Cup performances, a resolve which had produced an "edge" at training this week.
The defending champions have yet to put in a quality 80-minute performance at this tournament. They were excellent in the second half oftheir 26-16 win over Argentina and reasonably impressive in their first half of the 58-14 win over Namibia, but the All Blacks skipper said there is no excuse for rustiness against Georgia at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday morning NZT.
Image 1 of 7: Sam Cane lends Jerome Kaino a hand to put on Namibia captain Jacques Burger's jersey after their Pool C match.
"Performance-wise we need to take a step up and this is the time to do that," he said today. "We've all had a run in the first two games so there's no excuses for not being ready to go. There has been a bit of an edge this week.
"When you haven't played for a while there's always a bit of rustiness. I don't want to use that as an excuse but just those little things are what let you down. Against Namibia last week the guys were trying hard but were making some crucial mistakes that, going forward, we can't afford to let happen."
The All Blacks will want to be more direct up front against a big Georgia pack and cut out the mistakes that plagued them against Namibia at London's Olympic Stadium.
"I just look at that last 20 minutes when I was on the field anyway at that Namibian game and yes there wasn't much rugby but we didn't help ourselves by making mistakes so we went to set piece fairly regularly so that slows the game down. If we don't make as many mistakes and actually look after the ball that will make a difference.
"We had a pretty physical day on Sunday and you can always tell when there's an extra edge there. It's hard to explain but when you talk about getting something right it's straight to the point and that's the way it's been this week - pretty direct and straight to the point which usually indicates the guys are ready."
