All Blacks: Winning in Cup warm up

Richie McCaw says his men must reproduce their winning recipe next weekend at the Cake Tin. Photo / Getty Images

The All Blacks need to treat Tri-Nations II against the Boks this week as a template for next year's World Cup.

The challenge in Wellington is to reproduce their form and grab the result, just as any prospective World Cup champion will need to string successive victories together in the tournament.

Those objectives and the response from the World Cup and Tri-Nations champions should set up a sizzling six days of theory and uncertainty before the sides resume their duel at the Cake Tin.

For 301 days the All Blacks had stewed about their last loss to the Boks. Senior men such as Richie McCaw, Brad Thorn and Keven Mealamu badly wanted retribution.

"The key thing about this performance was three-zip last year," forwards coach Steve Hansen said, referring to defeats against South Africa.

"A lot of people had been waiting to play this test match and a lot of work went into it, a lot of mental thought from the players and we have come out on top. But as Richie and Ted [coach Graham Henry] have said, we have to do it again."

With a tournament bye after Wellington and other gaps in the Tri-Nations programme, this week is the closest the All Blacks have to mirroring the pressure they will get from top-quality rivals before the seventh global festival in New Zealand.

The end-of-year tour to the northern hemisphere is a marathon endurance test but beating the Six Nations sides is generally not as demanding as facing Tri-Nations opponents.

The 32-12 winning start to the Tri-Nations at Eden Park was a triumph for team planning, coaching and execution. Several players such as Mils Muliaina, Tom Donnelly and Ma'a Nonu produced high-quality performances on a meagre diet of matches.

It was an effort to rival the All Blacks' 39-12 win against France in Marseilles last November and an emphatic response to the side's three defeats against the Boks last season.

Captain McCaw said his men had combined a potent mix of aggression, attitude and desire in every aspect of the test. The trick now would be to reproduce that blend at the Cake Tin.

There had been an interval of nine tests since the All Blacks lost an international - against the Boks in Hamilton last September.

"I think the edge was created by the results last year," Henry confessed.

The forwards' supremacy was a mark of their concentration and the work done by Hansen on all facets of their work.

They seemed half a metre sharper to the contact than the Boks, they had the nudge in the scrums and, most importantly, they were confident and pilfering in the lineouts.

The All Blacks claimed every one of Mealamu's pinpoint throws and pinched two from their rivals, a statistic which would have been unheard of last season.

"The other thing that pleased me, and was a big part of the test, was how you maintained your self-belief when you were put under pressure," said Hansen. "And this team showed that, at times, when they were put under pressure they kept their self-belief and actually took that pressure and applied it to the opposition and asked questions of them."

McCaw said the standards set by his team had to be the benchmark throughout the Tri-Nations. They had shown how well they could play so there was no excuse for not matching the high standard again.

"If we do it right, in terms of getting the attitude right, things that worked did not just happen by chance, they happened by hard work," he said.

"It would be disappointing to step back from that."

The beaten Boks admitted their flaws. Skipper John Smit thought the only positive was they could not be any worse in Wellington.

The hosts had created their own fortune and sides who sat "on the right side of the law got the rub of the green".

The Springboks struggled to get into the game, they were not switched on and they played out of character.

"The All Blacks wanted it more and deserved what they got," Smit said.

If the All Blacks were naturally thrilled by their victory, they also knew their second-half advantage was only 12-9 and supplemented by a late bonus-point try to Tony Woodcock.

As always, Henry said there was room for improvement and there would have to be to counter the anticipated Springbok resurgence. The visitors missed injured halfback and playmaker Fourie du Preez, but the All Blacks were also without some big-game players.

Henry noted that, at times, referee Alan Lewis battled with the test's exceptional pace as the ball was in play for 40 minutes in a game that featured only 77 plays instead of the usual 110.

"The ball was in play a huge amount of time which puts huge pressure on referees," Henry said.

The All Black coach has previously suggested that the game could use two referees, not on the field at the same time, but one to replace another when fatigue sets in.