All Black skipper Richie McCaw has been cross-training hard for the last fortnight but knows he will have to bust the pain barrier on Saturday after his lengthy test layoff.
His sporting diet has been boxing, swimming, cycling and gym work before he moved back into full training
in Auckland this week ahead of the return Bledisloe Cup test on Saturday.
"The first game's always tough. Hopefully the adrenaline kicks in and you get stuck in. It'll hurt but you have to get on with it. That's what I'm most worried about, for the last two and a half weeks I've been doing a bit of running but that's never going to make up for match play," he said.
McCaw is inked in to start his 63rd test on Saturday as the All Blacks search for the magic elixir to staunch a two-test losing streak.
The 27-year-old flanker will face a twin-pronged attack from Wallaby tearaways George Smith and Phil Waugh with the All Black priority to get the front foot possession which eluded them in last week's defeat in Sydney.
McCaw said he was refreshed after his enforced break although he did it tough watching live last week in Sydney and not being able to have any impact.
"I was not happy with the pack getting beaten physically at the breakdown. We have to be in a state of mind that last week was not good enough and we have got to do better," he said. "We have got to turn up with the right mindset and we have got to work collectively."
Under their current coaching regime, the All Blacks only faced a third successive defeat in 2004 when they were beaten by the Wallabies then the Springboks offshore before redressing those defeats with a 59-10 victory in their next test against Italy in Rome.
