America's Cup: Jimmy Spithill takes dig at Team New Zealand

Jimmy Spithill of Oracle Team USA. Photo / Ricardo Pinto.

Oracle skipper Jimmy Spihill twisted the knife in Team New Zealand, and has even claimed he has a leak in the Kiwi camp.

Spithill's hard-nosed press conference included the claim that Oracle had a better tactical set up on the boat involving three Australians who know each other well. He highlighted mistakes by TNZ and even managed a dig at the New Zealand media.

"It was great to be under so much pressure," Spithill said, after the win over TNZ.

"Both times we've raced Team New Zealand they have made some pretty fundamental mistakes...at the start line today and obviously at the top mark again.

"One thing that is pretty powerful in our boat is we've got a dedicated technician in Tom Slingsby and Kyle Langford is also included. The other boat - they don't have any of that. You can hear that in their communications."

Spithill claimed to have prior knowledge that TNZ would choose Ben Ainslie Racing as its semifinals opponent, saying he knew "from the leak I've got in their team".

And he got another dig in, highlighting that "almost a dozen boat builders from Warkworth" had arrived in the Oracle camp, and that their long hours of commitment were firing up the sailors.

"We're hungry to reward those guys on shore," he said.

Spithill said his team had made mistakes, but they were a "candid" crew who would be fixing them. There was a lot of improvement to the technique and design "still on the table".

And on the controversial bonus point they take into the match racing, he told the media it was "kind of cool".

"(without it) people, especially you Kiwi media, would suggest we were sandbagging out there, we would try to fix the results".

It was a brilliant, cocky performance from Spithill, who will sense that TNZ may have lost some confidence. And he is more than happy to dent it further.