SYDNEY - Wallaby winger Wendell Sailor has begun the mind games ahead of a potential semifinal against the All Blacks by labelling them favourites.
In a Sunday Telegraph column published before New Zealand played their final pool game and well before either transtasman team play their quarter-final match, Sailor has called
the All Blacks the team to beat.
"I said before this World Cup started that I could not split England or New Zealand for favouritism," Sailor wrote. "Well, now I can.
"England are a complete side who deserved to be favourites for all they have achieved over the past two years. They are playing within themselves, although I was impressed with what Samoa did against them.
"But the All Blacks are just so well-drilled. They know how to shift the ball in attack and how to finish a movement, and that's one of the biggest things you have to do at this World Cup."
Sailor said New Zealand's biggest strength was the number of high-quality players available to them, citing the emergence at this tournament of second five-eighths Daniel Carter and lock Brad Thorn, a former Brisbane, Queensland and Australian league team-mate of Sailor's.
And their backline was the most dangerous in the world because of their pace and understanding.
"They are the best side the Wallabies have played this year. England were tough and solid, but the All Blacks are getting better and better," Sailor wrote.
"They are just smashing teams and they are in the right form at the right end of the tournament."
Sailor's only question-mark was over the unchallenging nature of the All Blacks' pool games.
"The match the All Blacks played that really impressed me was against Tonga at Suncorp Stadium.
"That game is usually a grudge match and the Tongans said how pumped they were for it. But the All Blacks took the hits early, then put on try after try.
"And their form has been outstanding all year. When you can put 50 points on a side like South Africa away and then 50 against us away, well, that has done it for me. They are the team to beat."
- NZPA
