America's Cup: Jimmy Spithill - The master of the mind games

Jimmy Spithill from Oracle Team USA. Photo / Photosport

After undoing Team New Zealand on the water, it didn't take Jimmy Spithill long to set about his work off the water.

No sooner had he stepped off the chase boat and into the mixed media zone at the America's Cup village, Spithill commenced the mind games, attempting to pick at the loose stitches at the seams of Emirates Team New Zealand.

For New Zealand fans the script seemed awfully familiar - right down to the boat-load of boat-builders arriving from Warkworth to improve the Oracle Team USA "package".

Spithill, quite rightly, had plenty to crow about today.

The pressure was on the defender coming into the final day of the qualifying series, with their ability to take a crucial one-point head start in the America's Cup match riding on the outcome of their opening race against Team NZ - a showdown many had been billing as effectively the first race of the Cup match.

Oracle delivered, while the Kiwis faltered and Spithill was careful to make sure his rivals knew about it, listing their litany of blunders.

Asked if he thought Team NZ had been rattled today, the two-time America's Cup winning skipper replied:

"Oh absolutely, I think they were."

He described Kiwi helmsman Peter Burling's error in the pre-start as a "basic foul", as was Team NZ's boundary trangression on the fourth leg, which saw them stung twice by the umpire boat.

"Both times we've raced Team New Zealand they've made some pretty fundamental mistakes - the startline today, and obviously the top mark again - just like the first time we lined up," Spithill said, referring to his team's come from behind win on the opening day of the qualifiers.

The digs kept coming from the self-assured Australian in the post-racing press conference, which will be Spithill's last appearance for a while as Oracle now excuse themselves from the challenger series.

Spithill questioned the set-up on the Kiwi boat, wondering who was calling the shots tactically.

"One thing that is pretty powerful - certainly in the set-up on our boat is we have a dedicated tactician in Tom Slingsby and Kyle Langford is also involved. Obviously in the other boat they don't have any of that. You can hear that in the communication."

It's not clear whether these super brains of Slingsby and Langford had a hand in planning Spithill's off-water manoeuvres, but Oracle's tactics are. It is the same strategy we saw from the defender in the 2013 event in San Francisco and Spithill has the script pretty much word perfect by now.

As he wrapped up his media duties, Spithill planted one last seed, suggesting today's result could prove decisive down the track.

"Who knows, we could come back and see this bonus point as a real defining moment."

The master of mind games at this best.